Advanced Placement United States History [APUSH] covers American history from the European encounter with the New World to the present. It emphasizes political, social, economic and diplomatic history as well as trends in American culture and religion. It maintains a cross-chronological focus on the theory and practice of republican ideology, that is, the attempt to frame and maintain a regime that is powerful enough to ensure order but not so powerful as to threaten the rights of its citizens.

The course is organized in two halves: micro-economics in the first semester and macro-economics in the second. Micro-economics refers to the small picture: the study of how individual consumers and firms make decisions. Macro-economics looks at the big picture: the operation of the national or international economy taken as a whole.