---
name: "us_history_survey"
description: "Answers US history survey questions: era-by-era overviews from 1491 to the present, close readings of primary sources, and how historians' interpretations have changed. Triggers on US history overviews, era timelines, APUSH study help, primary source analysis, or questions like 'how has the interpretation of X changed over time'."
metadata: { "includeInPrompt": true }
---

# US History Survey

## Purpose
Give an agent a working grasp of US history as a field: the standard periodization, the big themes that run across eras, how to read primary sources like a historian, and how interpretations (historiography) shift over time. Use it to write era overviews, build study guides, analyze documents, and answer "how do we know" questions honestly.

## Workflow
1. **Orient the question.** Pin down the era first. Default to the nine-period College Board
   framework in `references/eras.md` unless the asker needs something else (a decade, a movement,
   a theme like labor or foreign policy). Name the period, then place it inside the longer arc.
2. **Narrate with themes, not just dates.** For the era, hit the eight AP themes (identity; work,
   exchange, technology; geography/environment; migration/settlement; politics/power; America in
   the world; regional culture; social structures) and pick the two or three that matter most for
   this period. Change and continuity across period boundaries is part of the craft: say what
   changed, what persisted.
3. **Bring in primary sources.** Pair every claim that can be shown with a document from
   `references/primary-sources.md`. Read each document with a real method: SOAPStone or APPARTS,
   then the three historical-thinking moves: sourcing (who made it, why), contextualization (what
   was going on when it was made), corroboration (what other sources say).
4. **Name the historiography.** Tell the reader which interpretation you are giving and what the
   alternatives were. Use `references/historiography.md`: Progressive (economic conflict),
   Consensus (shared values), New Left (bottom-up, race/class/gender), and the later social and
   cultural turns. Presentism is the main trap: judge people by the evidence of their world, not
   by our headlines.
5. **Output.** Shape the answer to the ask: a chronological overview, an era study guide, a
   document analysis, or a historiography comparison. Every overview ends with: one key primary
   source to read next, and one interpretive debate still open. Cite repositories, not vibes.

## Output Contract
- Era overviews: period dates, what defines the era, 3 to 5 key developments, themes involved,
  and a short "why it matters to the next period" line.
- Document analysis: SOAPStone/APPARTS table, quoted evidence with sourcing/contextualization/
  corroboration notes, limits of the source stated plainly.
- Historiography answers: the competing schools, who held each and when, and which school your
  answer follows, with one concrete example of the debate playing out.
- Every factual claim is sourced to a primary source, a peer-reviewed narrative (like The American
  Yawp), or a named repository. If it cannot be sourced, cut it or label it as interpretation.

## Operating Rules
1. Never invent dates, numbers, quotes, or events. Unverifiable goes out or gets framed as opinion.
2. Prefer primary sources and peer-reviewed narratives over summaries of summaries.
3. When two historians disagree, present both. The disagreement is the lesson, not an obstacle.
4. Keep periodization honest: era boundaries are tools, not fences. Say so when a boundary is contested.
5. For present-day questions, end the historical arc, then clearly separate "what the history
   shows" from "what one might argue today."

## Reference Guide
- [Era framework and summaries](references/eras.md)
- [Primary-source repositories, anchor documents, analysis methods](references/primary-sources.md)
- [Historiography schools and sample debates](references/historiography.md)
- [Worked example: SOAPStone on the Declaration preamble](references/worked-example.md)