The AP European History exam in 2027: format, date and length

Historian 1 and Historian 2

Historian 1: In the Italian city-states of the fifteenth century, Europeans began to think of themselves as individuals rather than mainly as members of a guild, a family or a church. Humanists read ancient texts with new critical methods, artists signed their work and sought fame, and writers praised human talent and achievement. The Renaissance marks the moment when a recognizably modern, secular outlook first appeared in Europe.

Historian 2: The Renaissance looks less like a break with the Middle Ages once we ask who took part in it. Its patrons were mostly popes, princes and rich merchants, and most of the art they paid for was religious. Humanist schools trained a small elite, while the great majority of Europeans, who farmed the land, lived much as their grandparents had. Renaissance culture was a change in the tastes of a few, built on medieval foundations.