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African American History since Emancipation (Self-Paced Course)
Follow the African American struggle to achieve full citizenship in the aftermath of legal slavery, from the rise of Jim Crow to modern-day campaigns against racial injustice. Led by Professor Peniel Joseph, University of Texas at Austin.
Alexander Hamilton's America (Self-Paced Course)
Explore Hamilton's life and legacy, including his formative years, his friends and foes, and his role in the Revolution and in the American economic system. Led by Professor Carol Berkin of Baruch College, in conversation with eminent guest scholars.
Amazing Grace (Self-Paced Course)
Discover the writers and reformers of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries whose passionate poems, sermons, fiction, songs, and slave narratives formed the vanguard of a movement to end American slavery. Led by Professor James Basker, Barnard College.
American Immigration History (Self-Paced Course)
Explore the struggles and achievements of major groups who journeyed to a new home in the United States, including Irish, Italian, Jewish, Asian, and Latino Americans. Led by Professor Vincent Cannato, University of Massachusetts, Boston.
American Indian History (Self-Paced Course)
Join a broad and deep exploration of American Indian history through a series of case studies, including early encounters, the Lewis and Clark expedition, and persistence in the face of government expansion, removal, and assimilation policies. Led by Professor Colin Calloway, Dartmouth College.
Black Writers in American History (Self-Paced Course)
Examine the writing of African American poets, novelists, and essayists – including Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and Ta-Nehisi Coates - and considers how their perspectives have shaped history for all Americans. Led by Professor John Stauffer, Harvard University.
Colonial North America (Self-Paced Course)
Explore the British, French, Spanish, Dutch, and other European colonies in North America in an attempt to understand colonial life on its own terms, rather than simply as a precursor to the American Revolution. Led by Professor John Fea, Messiah College.
Conflict and Reform: The United States, 1877-1920 (Self-Paced Course)
This course is about the history of the United States during a period of great social change and conflict. Over these four decades, the US became a predominantly urban and industrial nation, a nation of immigrants and wage-earners, an imperial nation, and a nation where progressive reform was the order of the day—though its definition and aims were furiously contested. We will seek to understand how and why these tumultuous changes occurred—and who gained and who lost in the process.
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Democracy in the Early Republic (Self-Paced Course)
Explore the evolving concept of democracy in the Early American Republic from the 1790s to the eve of the Civil War. Led by Professor Andrew Robertson, Lehman College, City University of New York.
Emancipation (Self-Paced Course)
Go beyond the Emancipation Proclamation to dig deeper into the complex process of emancipation, examining the efforts of thousands of men and women struggling for freedom before and during the Civil War. Led by Professor James Oakes, The Graduate Center, City University of New York.
Famous Trials in American History (Self-Paced Course)
Examine twelve of the most famous trials of the past century, consider the role politics, race, gender, religion, and celebrity played in the proceedings. Led by Professor Jack Ford, television journalist and visiting lecturer of law at Yale University.
Race and Rights in America (Self-Paced Course)
Explore the diverse political philosophies of influential black Americans as they sought to secure their dignity as human beings and rights as citizens.
Revolutionary America (Self-Paced Course)
Gain insight into the Revolution with new scholarly approaches to traditional topics, including American resistance to British rule, the decision for independence, America's victory, and the role of marginalized groups in the struggle for independence. Led by Professor Denver Brunsman, George Washington University.
Teaching with Documents: Using Primary Sources in the Classroom (Online Course)
Teaching with Documents is an online course with instructional videos and lesson plans for teachers of grades 5-12. Each video focuses on a different way to use primary sources to improve student content knowledge and core literacy skills. Teaching with Documents demonstrates the same tested, Common Core-aligned approach used in Gilder Lehrman’s Teaching Literacy through History™ professional development program.
The Age of Jefferson (Self-Paced Course)
Explore Jefferson's career and thought, using his eloquent writings to illuminate Jefferson's era from the imperial crisis through his presidency. Led by Professor Peter Onuf, University of Virginia.
The American Civil War (Self-Paced Course)
Consider the legacy and memory, as well as the tactics and military strategy, of the four-year conflict that left six hundred thousand dead, two million refugees, and destroyed legal slavery in the United States. Led by Professor Allen Guelzo, Gettysburg College.
The American Presidency (Self-Paced Course)
Take an in-depth look at the executive office through case studies of six twentieth- and twenty-first-century presidents. Led by Professors Meg Jacobs and Julian E. Zelizer, Princeton University.
The American West (Self-Paced Course)
This course will trace the expansion of the United States to the Pacific, the exploration of the West, the defeat and dispossession of its Native peoples, and environmental transformations unmatched at few if any other places on earth. The history of the West was as well a revelation of the industrial, social, technological, and scientific forces that were remaking the nation and world. Within all of this were compelling human stories and, with Indian peoples, some of the darkest tragedies...
The Era of Theodore Roosevelt (Self-Paced Course)
Explore how the final years of the nineteenth century and opening decades of the twentieth gave birth to the modern United States. Led by Professor Bruce Schulman, Boston University.
The Global Cold War (Self-Paced Course)
Examine how the Cold War shaped the world – from the conflict’s impact on the culture and daily life of the United States and Russia, to unexpected nations across Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia – using the latest scholarship to delve into the Cold War’s complexities, twists, and turns. Led by Jeremi Suri, University of Texas at Austin.
The Kennedy Presidency (Self-Paced Course)
Through the lenses of imagery, symbolism, media, leadership theory, and public policy, explore the strengths, weaknesses, successes, and failures of President John F. Kennedy. Led by Professor Barbara Perry, The Miller Center, University of Virginia.
The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass (Self-Paced Course)
These twelve lectures, the readings, and the discussions are to probe the nature of the life, the work, and the thought of the nineteenth century abolitionist, orator, and author Frederick Douglass. We will examine in depth the public and private sides of Douglass’s life, his importance as a thinker, and as a political activist in the great dramas of the Civil War and Reconstruction eras...
The South in American History (Self-Paced Course)
Trace the important role the South has played in American history, from the first permanent English colony in North America, to the emergence and end of the most powerful slave society in the modern world, to the upheavals of the 20th century and the conflicted South we know today. Led by Professor Edward Ayers, University of Richmond.
The Supreme Court and the Constitution in the 20th Century (Self-Paced Course)
Examine nine defining cases and themes to gain an understanding of how regular people, social movement activists, politicians, scholars, lawyers, and judges have fought about what the Constitution means inside and outside of the courtroom. Led by Professor Melvin Urofsky, Virginia Commonwealth University.