APUSH Thematic Review Top 60
A categorical examination of patterns, trends and themes

This collection of patterns, trends and themes was adapted from John A. Garraty’s  101 Things Every College Graduate Should Know About American History and  101 More Things Every College Graduate Should Know About American History originally published in American Heritage.

LET’S MAKE A DEAL  (answer key) In an intensely competitive political society where 55 percent is a sweeping victory and 60 percent a landslide, success in politics often depends upon the art of compromising. American history is therefore full of wheeling and dealing, where one group agrees to something it dislikes in order to get something that it wants very much or, to put a better face on the practice, where politicians take into account the needs of others as well as themselves and try to do what is best for the entire country. Apart from the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Compromise of 1850 (see last December’s issue), here are some examples:

1. The Great Compromise  (1787) 

2.  The Three-fifths Compromise  (1787)

3. Missouri Compromise. It was 1820  

4. The Compromise Tariff  1833)

5. Compromise of 1850  

6. The Crittenden Compromise   (1860)

7. The Compromise of 1877 

8. The Atlanta Compromise(1895). 

GOOD PHRASES FOR BIG ISSUES (answer key)

9. THE GREAT WAR FOR THE EMPIRE

10. THE AMERICAN SYSTEM

11. THE PECULIAR INSTITUTION

12.  MANIFEST DESTINY   

13. WAVING THE BLOODY SHIRT  

14.  THE ROBBER BARONS