TEXTBOOK SURVEY NAME________________________ HR_______DATE__________

Complete the following by skimming through your history textbook.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The table of contents provides insight into how the author(s) have chosen to organize the textbook. Sometimes
textbooks have a brief table of contents as well as a more detailed one or ones specific to certain features like
maps. The detailed one for this book starts on page vi and is the one you should use for this section.
Periodization refers to how historical time is divided. Sometimes certain periods are names (such as “The Age of
Exploration”) and sometimes periods begin or end with a turning point or event (for example, the voyages of
Columbus). Other time periods overlap. Your book uses the term “topic” – there are nine topics in your book.

1. What is the periodization used in your textbook? (List the periods with their names and dates.)

Topic 1 The Early Americas and European Exploration (Prehistory-1700)

Topic 2 European Colonization of North America (1500-1750)

Topic 3 The Revolutionary Era (1750-1783)

Topic 4 A Constitution for the United States (1776-Present)

Topic 5 The Early Republic (1789-1825)

Topic 6 The Age of Jackson and Westward Expansion (1824-1860)

Topic 7 Society and Culture Before the Civil War (1820-1860)

Topic 8 Sectionalism and Civil War (1820-1865)

Topic 9 The Reconstruction Era (1865-1877)

2. Do any of the periods/topics overlap in time? If so, list the ones that overlap by their names and dates.

Topic 6 The Age of Jackson and Westward Expansion (1824-1860)

Topic 7 Society and Culture Before the Civil War (1820-1860)

Topic 2 European Colonization of North America (1500-1750)

Topic 3 The Revolutionary Era (1750-1783)

3. Why does periodization matter? What does it help us to be aware of?

it makes it easier to see cause and effect.

GEOGRAPHIC BALANCE
 4. A. In looking through the topics of the table of contents, do certain places come up more often than
others? North and South America

B. What places, if any, seem left out at particular times?

C. Name two places mentioned in the table of contents about which you know very little.

Spain, Varginia

THE TEXT

5. Does the book include passages, visuals, or timelines before or after sections, units, or chapters that
provide a big-picture explanation of the time period or topic? If yes, why might this be helpful to read
(even if it is not assigned!)? Yes it does, to help you understand the big-picture contexts about what
your looking at.

6. Choose one chapter and skim through it to answer the following question. How has the author
attempted to make the text more readable (font, side margin subheadings, use of color or bold font,
italics, visuals on each page, etc.)? List all of the ways below.

 Highlighted words

 Reading check

 Color titles

7. Read a random paragraph and identify any words that you do not know. In your reading for the course,
how will you deal with these unfamiliar words? (Use the dictionary? Use context clues? Look up the
ones that come up frequently?)

 Use the dictionary

VISUALS

Textbook authors work hard to find a variety of images to complement the text. These include photographs of
contemporary places or artwork, drawings, paintings, pictures of artifacts, diagrams, charts, and maps.

8. Choose THREE different types of visuals in the text. Record the page number and a brief phrase
describing each below.
a. Pg. 350

b. Pg. 351
 c. Pg. 353

9. Why did these images interest you?

Because they have deeper meanings than what the images show.
EXTRAS

Many texts have additional features at the beginning or end of the book. Sometimes these might include a
glossary, index, timelines, or maps. Other books embed some of these features throughout the book.

10. What items are included at the beginning and end of your textbook?

11. Introduction, Atlas, Glossary

12. Where would you go to find timelines?

In the back of the book.

13. Describe how you would look for a particular map in the book.

Go to the back of the book.

THE BIG PICTURE

14. What do you like most about this textbook?

The Glossary.

15. What do you expect the greatest challenge will be in reading this textbook? How will you try to address
this? Going through every page to find the right lesson. Go to the Table of Contents.