AP United States Government and Politics Summer Assignment Dear Students, Welcome to AP U.S. Government and Politics! You will have the opportunity to earn college credit for this course through the College Board at the end of the year by taking the AP Exam in May of 2017. This is a very rigorous and fast-paced course. It is important that you are aware of the year-long commitment you are about to undertake as a student of this course. Please make sure to read the summer assignment completely and carefully so that you will be ready to fully and successfully participate when class begins for the upcoming 2016-2017 school year. AP Government requires different thinking and writing skills than you used in U.S. History. Writing for government requires the understanding and analysis of abstract concepts and principles. You will depend less on the study of chronology of facts and events than on your interpretation of facts and events. You will have the added benefit of taking the course as the 2016 presidential election reaches its peak. Throughout the year you will become aware of politics in general and, specifically, have an opportunity to explore your political self, and where you fit into our political world. This summer assignment is designed to help you to transition from thinking historically to thinking and writing from a political perspective. There are two required parts and one optional part to this summer assignment and each one is described on the subsequent pages. Assignments should be prepared and completed for the first day of class. Please take a minute to follow @Mr_Nappo and the hashtag #AEHSGov on Twitter, as throughout the summer I will be tweeting relevant news stories that you can use for your current event journals. If you have any questions about the summer assignment you can reach me via my school email address: Anthony.J.Nappo@mcpsmd.net. I hope that you have an enjoyable, relaxing, and productive summer. Sincerely, Mr. Nappo
Part I: Current Events Journal (Required) AP Government is more directly related to current events than any course you will take in high school. Everything that we will study relates to how politics and government works in modern America. Accordingly, knowledge of current political and governmental affairs will significantly help you to understand the things we study, and will, in fact, be necessary to succeed in the course. If you know what is going on in the country with respect to politics and government, you will do better in the course. You should follow major current events by doing one or more of the following on as close to a daily basis as possible: Read either the print or online version of a major newspaper. Watch a national/international news broadcast (CNN, MSNBC, FOX News, PBS, ABC, CBS, NBC). Local news outlets can be acceptable too, if they are covering national news stories. Read major newsmagazines or political journals (Time, Newsweek, US News and World Report, The Economist, The Atlantic, The New Yorker) Read articles from an online political journalism website such as Politico (politico.com), Five-Thirty- Eight (fivethirtyeight.com), or Vox (vox.com) Watch daily or weekly news/current affairs programming (Hardball, Meet the Press, Face the Nation, This Week, etc.) During the course of the summer (beginning the week of June 19-26 and ending the week of August 21-28), keep a current events journal. At the end of each week, type a minimum of two paragraphs (complete sentences; ~500 words) about the major event or events in American government and/or politics from the past week. In the first paragraph, you should describe the event or events in as much detail as possible. In the second paragraph you should explain what you learned from these events about the workings of our government and political system, and state any opinions, thoughts, or analysis that you might have. Your journal should address topics that are of significant importance to American politics and government. Acceptable events include those related to campaigns and elections, the Constitution, political parties, interest groups, the news media, political issues, the president, Congress, legislation, federal court cases/decisions, government agencies, civil liberties/rights, or U.S. foreign policy. Please email me if you are questioning whether a topic is acceptable and would like verification. With each week s entry, you must cite in MLA format any news media sources you used during that week. ***Email me your first current event journal (Anthony.J.Nappo@mcpsmd.net) by June 26 so that I can give you feedback. The rest of your journals will be due on the first day of school.*** CURRENT EVENT TIPS AND TRICKS: 1) Follow @Mr_Nappo on Twitter I will be tweeting major news stories throughout the summer. 2) Use multiple news sources to see which ones you like the most 3) Download news apps on your phone and turn on push notifications; this allows the news to come to you! 4) Listen to podcasts during road trips specifically, I recommend NPR Hourly News Summary, NPR Politics, Your Weekly Constitutional, Face the Nation, Meet the Press, 60 Minutes, and FiveThirtyEight Elections. 5) Make following current events a habit! The news will make much more sense to you if you follow it each day, as opposed to cramming your news at the end of each week.
Part II: Book Review (Required) **Each student must choose a book from the list below. Check the school library, the public library, the bookstore and on-line retailers like Amazon.com. You may not read a book that you have read before. If you want to read a book that is not on the list, you must receive approval from me first.** 1. You must write a review of your book and turn it in on August 29. 2. The Review: The review is a 500 word or more essay. A good book review identifies 1- the author s purpose for writing the book and 2- the author s thesis (the author s core argument, and analyzes how well he/she proves that thesis in the body of the book. The analysis should select facts, arguments and examples from the body of the book and discuss how the author uses them to support his thesis or what he fails to do. End your essay with a discussion of the lessons you learned from reading the book. In short, the review should inform the reader about the book and why it is, or is not, well written. It should not be a book report. Use the following structure for your review: a. Introduction Brief statement of what the book is about Author s purpose Author s thesis b. Body Analysis of the book based on facts, arguments and examples from it What are the strengths and weaknesses of the book? Your argument for whether or not the author proves his/her thesis c. Conclusion Lessons of the book for others 1) The 15 Biggest Lies About Politics by Major Garret 2) All Politics is Local by Tip O'Neill 3) The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama 4) The Victory Lab by Sasha Issenberg 5) Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam 6) The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver 7) Living History - Hillary Clinton 8) Hard Call by John McCain 9) Crippled America by Donald J. Trump 10) Decision Points by George W. Bush 11) 40 More Years: How the Democrats Will Rule the Next Generation by James Carville and Rebecca Buckwalter-Poza 12) A More Perfect Constitution: 23 Proposals to Revitalize Our Constitution and Make America a Fairer Place by Larry Sabato 13) In Our Defense: The Bill of Rights in Action by Ellen Alderman and Caroline Kennedy 14) The Conscience of a Conservative by Barry Goldwater 15) The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman 16) The Constitution: A Biography by Akhil Reed Amar 17) For the People: What the Constitution Really Says About Your Rights by Akhil Reed Amar and Alan Hirsh 18) Miracle at Philadelphia: The Story of the Constitutional Convention, May-September 1787 by Catherine Drinker Bowen 19) Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation by Joseph Ellis
20) Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow 21) John Adams by David McCullough 22) James Madison by Richard Brookhiser 23) Five Presidents: My Extraordinary Journey with Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford by Clint Hill 24) How Democratic is the American Constitution? by Robert Dahl 25) Confessions of Congressman X by Congressman X 26) The Broken Branch: How Congress is Falling America by Thomas Mann 27) Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert A. Caro 28) The Thirteen American Arguments by Howard Fineman 29) Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State: Why Americans Vote the Way They Do by Andrew Gelman 30) Strangers Among Us: How Latino Immigration is transforming America by Robert Suro 31) Race Matters by Cornel West 32) Front Row at the White House - Helen Thomas 33) Spin Cycle: How the White House and Media Manipulate the News by Howard Kurtz 34) Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents: The Politics of Leadership from Roosevelt to Reagan by Richard Neustadt 35) Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin 36) Primary Colors by Anonymous (actually Joe Klein) 37) The Surge by Larry Sabato 38) Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barak Obama 39) The Imperial Presidency by Arthur M. Schelsinger 40) The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House and the Education of Paul O Neill by Ron Suskind 41) The Roberts Court: The Struggle for the Constitution by Marcia Coyle 42) Uncertain Justice: The Roberts Court and the Constitution, by Lawrence Tribe and Joshua Matz 43) Storm Center: The Supreme Court in American Politics, David M. O Brien 44) Scalia Dissents: Writings of the Supreme Court s Wittiest, Most Outspoken Justice, by Antonin Scalia and Kevin Ring 45) Active Liberty by Stephen Breyer 46) The Majesty of the Law by Sandra Day O Connor 47) All the Laws but One by William H. Rehnquist 48) A People s History of the Supreme Court by Peter Irons 49) The Supreme Court: The Personalities and Rivalries that Defined America by Jeffrey Rosen 50) The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin You may also choose to read any political book published since 2000 or a biography of any recent (since 1900) president or "prominent" American politician.
Part III: Summer Binge-Watching Recommendations (Optional) TV/Netflix: The West Wing Madam Secretary VEEP The Newsroom Parks and Recreation Movies: 12 Angry Men 13 Days All the King s Men (2006; 1949) All the President s Men (1976) The American President (1995) Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore? Caucus Charlie Wilson s War (2007) Dave (1993) The Distinguished Gentleman Fed Up Food Inc. Frost/Nixon (2008) Game Change Gideon s Trumpet (1980) Good Night and Good Luck (2005) Head of State (2003) Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) Primary Colors (1998) Sicko (2007) Unprecedented (2002) W. (2008) Wag the Dog (1997) Soundtracks/Podcasts (great for car trips!): Hamilton (an American Musical) Your Weekly Constitutional (podcast) 60 Minutes Podcast Frontline Podcast Face the Nation Podcast FiveThirtyEight Elections