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African American History since Emancipation

African American History since Emancipation
Examine African American history from emancipation to the present, focusing on the struggle of African Americans to achieve full citizenship in the aftermath of legal slavery.

Alexander Hamilton's America

Alexander Hamilton's America
This self-paced course puts Hamilton in the context of the colonial and Revolutionary eras to help us fully understand both where he came from and the impact he had on American government and politics.

American Immigration History: 1820 to the Present

American Immigration History: 1820 to the Present
This course explores 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.

American Immigration History: People, Patterns, and Policy

American Immigration History: People, Patterns, and Policy
Professor Madeline Y. Hsu’s course enables students to better understand the terms by which immigration functions as a core aspect of US national identity.

American Indian History: Case Studies

American Indian History: Case Studies
This course guides participants through 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.

American Indian History: Recasting the Narrative

American Indian History: Recasting the Narrative
From the founding of the first European settlements in North America to continuing debates over the meanings of American democracy, Indian history remains integral to the understanding of US history and culture. This course introduces this complex and often ignored field of study.

Black Lives in the Founding Era

Black Lives in the Founding Era
Professor James Basker and several guest speakers restore to view the lives and writings of a wide array of African Americans in the period 1760 to 1800.

Black Women's History

Black Women's History
This course focuses on African American women’s history in the United States with certain aspects of black women’s activism and leadership covered within the African Diaspora.

Black Writers in American History

Black Writers in American History
Through exemplary works of literature, this course examines the writings of African American poets, novelists, and essayists, and considers how their perspectives have shaped history for all Americans.

Conflict and Reform: The United States, 1877-1920

Conflict and Reform: The United States, 1877-1920
This course is about the history of the United States during a period of great social change and conflict.

Democracy in the Early Republic

Democracy in the Early Republic
Explore the evolving concept of democracy in the early American Republic from the 1790s to the eve of the Civil War, when the possibilities of the Revolution were first explored and tested.

Emancipation

Emancipation
This course considers the complex process that took several generations to complete, from the American Revolution to Reconstruction, including the “first emancipation” during the American Revolution, the growth of an antislavery movement committed to ending slavery through federal policies, the i

Famous Trials in American History

Famous Trials in American History
This course examines twelve of the most famous trials of the past century, focusing on the legal significance, historical and political context, social implications, and media coverage surrounding each case.

Historiography and Historical Methods

Historiography and Historical Methods
Historiography is the study of the history and theory of historical writing.

Lives of the Enslaved

Lives of the Enslaved
This course is a study of enslaved people and the ways in which human beings coped with captivity. It is also a course that listens to their voices through audio files, diaries, letters, actions, and silences.

Origins of the Civil War

Origins of the Civil War
This course examines various aspects of what historians call “The Crisis of the 1850s,” the crucial decade that ended in the secession of eleven slave states from the Union. Why did they secede? And why didn’t Lincoln let them?

Race and Rights in America

Race and Rights in America
This course explores the diverse political philosophies of influential Black Americans as they sought to secure their dignity as human beings and their rights as citizens.

Revolutionary America

Revolutionary America
This course explores new scholarly approaches to traditional subjects, including American resistance to British rule, the decision for independence, and America’s victory in the Revolutionary War.

Slavery in the Americas

Slavery in the Americas
This course investigates the history of slavery and forced labor in the Americas before 1860. Professor James Walvin looks at slavery in the colonial period, the Revolutionary era, and the 1800s throughout the Americas.

The Age of Jefferson

The Age of Jefferson
Explore Jefferson’s career and thought, and discover the momentous developments that defined Jefferson’s age, from the imperial crisis through his presidency.

The American Civil War

The American Civil War
The Civil War sparked some of the most heroic and achingly dark moments in American history. Join Gilder Lehrman and Allen C. Guelzo of Gettysburg College in a study of the war’s strategy, tactics, and memory, and consider the legacy of the Civil War 150 years after its end.

The American Enlightenment

The American Enlightenment
The Enlightenment is often associated with Europe, but in this course, we explore how the specific conditions of eighteenth-century North America—slavery, the presence of large numbers of Indigenous peoples, a colonial political context, and even local animals, rocks, and plants—also shaped the m

The American Presidency

The American Presidency
This course takes an in-depth look at the history and powers of the executive office through case studies of six twentieth- and twenty-first-century presidents.

The American West

The American West
This course traces 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 Era of Theodore Roosevelt

The Era of Theodore Roosevelt
This course examines how the era of Theodore Roosevelt, the final years of the nineteenth century and opening decades of the twentieth, gave birth to the modern United States.

The Global Cold War

The Global Cold War
This course examines the origins, strategy, and consequences of the Cold War from a global perspective. We look closely at the conflict’s impact not only in the United States and Russia, but also in sometimes unexpected nations across Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia.

The Great Depression and the New Deal

The Great Depression and the New Deal
Professor Eric Rauchway considers the causes and consequences of the economic slump of 1929–1933 with the economic recovery of 1933–1941 under the New Deal.

The History of American Protest

The History of American Protest
This course examines the rich tradition of protest literature in the United States from the American Revolution to the present. The primary focus is on three enduring strands of protest: civil rights (beginning with antislavery), women’s rights, and workers’ rights.