This course analyzes political, social, economic, cultural, diplomatic, and intellectual factors to study the people, events and movements of the American past. At the same time, it connects events and issues from the past to the concerns of the present. Students develop and use the same skills, practices, and methods employed by historians: analyzing primary and secondary sources; making historical comparisons; utilizing reasoning about contextualization, causation, and continuity and change over time; and developing historical arguments. The course also provides seven themes that students explore throughout the course in order to make connections among historical developments in different times and places: American and national identity; migration and settlement; politics and power; work, exchange, and technology; America in the world; geography and the environment; and culture and society. The course uses a college-level text, but analyzes influences and movements from a biblical worldview. It prepares students not only for advanced history, political science, and social studies courses in college, but also specifically for the AP U.S. History exam.