Vetted Resources: World History

This resource was developed as part of the AHA’s Remote Teaching Resources initiative.

 

15 Minute History

University of Texas at Austin

This podcast series is devoted to short, accessible discussions of important topics in world history, United States history, and Texas history with the award winning faculty and graduate students at the University of Texas at Austin, and distinguished visitors to our campus. They are meant to be a resource for both teachers and students, and can be enjoyed by anyone with an interest in history.

The Amboyna Conspiracy Trial

Adam Clulow

This project focuses on the Amboyna Conspiracy Trial of 1623. In this trial, Dutch authorities accused a group of English merchants and Japanese mercenaries of plotting to seize control of remote clove-producing island in modern-day Indonesia. Students can analyze and evaluate the case to gain a deeper understanding of the global effects of European commercial-military companies, including the early modern war on words. This site is featured on the World History Commons and the Roy Rosenzweig Center for New Media and History.

America in Class: Lesson Plans for History and Literature Teachers

National Humanities Center

America in Class: Lesson Plans for History and Literature Teachers offers collections of primary resources compatible with the Common Core State Standards. These include historical documents, literary texts, and works of art — thematically organized with notes and discussion questions. The purpose of this site is to help students identify and evaluate textual evidence, determine central ideas, understand the meanings of words, comprehend the structure of a text, recognize an author’s point of view, and interpret content presented in diverse media, including visual images. Lesson plans include contextual readings, primary sources, guided discussion questions and answers for teachers, and a section that defines “vocabulary pop-ups.”

The Animated Bayeux Tapestry

Potion Pictures; David Newton, animation and direction; Marc Sylvan, music and sound design.

The Animated Bayeux Tapestry depicts events leading up to to the Norman Invasion of Britain in 1066. Ideal for secondary school students, this short video starts about halfway through the original tapestry at the appearance of Halley’s Comet and concludes with the Battle of Hastings. The animation is set to music and includes sound effects of actions and activities depicted in the tapestry.

Children and Youth in History

Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media and University of Missouri-Kansas City

Children and Youth in History is a world history resource that provides teachers with more than 300 annotated primary sources focused on children and youth from 200 BCE through the 21st century. The introductory “Guide to ‘Reading’ Primary Sources on the History of Children & Youth” identifies strategies for using these sources. Teaching materials include case studies, class activities, assignments, and teaching modules.

Constitute: The World’s Constitutions to Read, Search, and Compare

Comparative Constitutions Project, Directed by Zachary Elkins, Tom Ginsburg, & James Melton

Constitute offers access to the world’s constitutions so that users can systematically compare them across a broad set of topics.

Curiosity Collections: The South Sea Bubble, 1720

Baker Library Special Collections, Harvard University

The South Sea Bubble Research Portal offers students an opportunity to investigate the British South Sea Company and the 1720 financial crisis through a rich collection of sources on the topic. An exhibition featuring selections from the collection provides further context for understanding the economic and social dimensions of the Bubble. Site resources include a bibliography with embedded, accessible links to contemporary resources, iconography of select satirical prints on the South Sea Bubble, and an essay that underscores why the South Sea Bubble resonates in the present.

Digital Resources for Vikings in World History

John Maunu

Digital Resources for Vikings in World History, compiled by veteran AP World History teacher, Exam Table Leader, and World History Connected Editor, John Maunu, features readings, videos, and lesson plans on the Vikings for high school and undergraduate introductory course instructors. Lessons, Syllabi, Podcasts, Videos, Book and Fillm Reviews, and websites, are available on topics ranging from Norse/Vikings, to Varangian Rus, to the Appropriation of Viking History by White Supremacists, to gender. Note: A few links require a subscription; scroll down for the many connections to open-access lesson plans, syllabi, videos, podcasts, readings and more.

EDSITEment! Lesson Plans

National Endowment for the Humanities

EDSITEment! Lesson Plans offer synchronous lesson plans that may be adapted to remote teaching. Many lesson plans take an interdisciplinary approach, and all either feature on-site or linked resources. Available lesson plans are aligned with AP World: Modern and AP Comparative Government and are suitable for college surveys. Interactive activities and assessments feature primary source analysis, seminars, debates, simulations, and other suggestions designed to promote student engagement.

The Fallen of World War II

Neil Halloran and Andy Dollerson

The Fallen of World War II is an interactive documentary that examines the human cost of the second World War and the decline in battle deaths in the years since the war. The 15-minute data visualization uses cinematic storytelling techniques to provide viewers with a fresh and dramatic perspective of a pivotal moment in history.

Fashion History Timeline

Justine De Young, project director, and Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) students and faculty

Fashion History Timeline is an open-access source for fashion and dress history, featuring objects and art from over a hundred museums and libraries that span the globe. The website includes entries on specific artworks, garments, and films. This site also features essays, movie couture analyses, a glossary of historic fashion terms, and a blog.

Fingerprinting in the Modern World

Daniel Asen, Rutgers University

Fingerprinting in the Modern World provides resources for teaching the history and present uses of fingerprinting. It offers short readings, prerecorded lectures, and online quizzes on various themes, such as: the colonial beginnings of fingerprinting in late 19th-century India; history of fingerprint identification practices and technologies; history of fingerprinting and policing; history of scientific research on fingerprints, including in physical anthropology, genetics, and medical genetics; and fingerprints and the scientific construction of race.

The Global History Podcast

Chase Caldwell Smith, UCLA; Jeffrey C.J. Chen, Stanford University

The Global History Podcast explores cross-cultural encounters in the early modern world to serve as enrichment for students and instructors of the 16th to the early 19th centuries. This podcast explores various themes in global history, focusing on the networks of people, trade, ideas, and commodities that connected distant continents in the age of sail. The Global History Podcast episodes also consider questions such as: Which sources can best illuminate cross-cultural encounters, and what interpretive difficulties do they raise? What are the challenges and opportunities of writing global histories of the early modern period? Each episode runs approximately 35-100 minutes long. Some episodes feature downloadable transcripts and images with guiding questions.

History of Censorship and Information Control During Information Revolutions Project

Organized by Cory Doctorow, Adrian Johns, and Ada Palmer

This discussion series, filmed in 2018 at the University of Chicago, compares early modern to modern and contemporary examples to look at how changes in information technology trigger new efforts to control and censor information.

The History of Vaccines

College of Physicians of Philadelphia

The History of Vaccines offers a world historical timeline as well as a collection of primary source images on outbreaks and inoculation. While primarily a site for science educators, the timeline and media offered on this site may spark discussion and research at the secondary school and college survey level.

The Indian Ocean in World History

The Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center 

The Indian Ocean in World History helps teachers incorporate this region into world history studies by illustrating interactions that took place among its various civilizations throughout time. This user-friendly teaching site for students from upper elementary to high school contains resources that may be also adapted for the undergraduate survey. This site is also featured and reviewed on The World History Commons.

Internet Global History Sourcebook

Paul Halsall, editor

The Internet Global History Sourcebook explores interaction between world cultures, and ways in whi

ch the “world” has a history in its own right. This site provides sources that can be used to examine how cultures contact and influence each other through trade, war, culture, religion, and migration. It provides links to primary source documents, secondary articles, reviews or discussion on a given topic, and links to sites. The Internet Global History Sourcebook can be used to help instructors frame a world history syllabus. It is a subset of texts derived from the following Internet Sourcebooks: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook, Internet Medieval Sourcebook, Internet Modern History Sourcebook.

Mapping History Project

Directed by Ina Asim, University of Oregon; Edited by James Mohr & John Nicols, University of Oregon

The Mapping History Project provides interactive and animated representations of fundamental historical problems and/or illustrations of historical events, developments, and dynamics. The material is copyrighted, but is open and available to academic users.

Middle Ages for Educators

Merle Eisenberg, Sara McDougall, Laura Morreale

Middle Ages for Educators offers short video lectures, digital tools, translated primary sources, and pedagogical approaches for teaching medieval studies. This site also features links to external resources on teaching and learning about the Middle Ages (300-1500 C.E.) Informative videos run 6-20 minutes long, some of which include accompanying slides.

Mongols in World History

Asia for Educators, Columbia University

Mongols in World History offers readings, discussion questions, and video for an interdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning about the Mongol Empire. It includes classroom materials on the Yuan dynasty (1271-1328). One highlight is a link to the Met Museum’s video “The World of Khubilai Khan: A Revolution in Painting” which examines the legacy of Yuan rule in painting. This video addresses protest, adaptation, and transformation of Chinese life under Mongol control, and also weaves in environmental history that contributed to the downfall of the dynasty. The classroom materials site features a Special Topic Guide with class discussion or essay prompts on Marco Polo in China.

OER Project

OER project, David Christiansen 

The OER Project offers an open-access, free world history courses and an educator community to help pace and guide the instructor. The three offered courses are Big History, Origins to Present, and 1750 to present, but instructors may assign select videos and readings to complement their own syllabi. When following the OER courses, students log in at a separate site from instructors; instructors have access to pacing and content guides. This standards-based world history course builds upon foundational historical thinking skills in preparation for AP, college, and beyond. The interdisciplinary Big History course is ideal for middle and high schoolers, but select material may be appropriate for the undergraduate survey course. Note: this resource requires registration.

Teaching Revolutions

Age of Revolutions

Teaching Revolutions includes short reflections and essays on teaching the history of revolutions. It includes suggestions for incorporating discussion and debate, visual and cultural analysis, and Reacting to the Past (RTTP), a simulation suitable for secondary school and undergraduate students. This resource is part of Age of Revolutions, a peer-reviewed, open access journal.

On Top of the World: A World History Podcast

Dave Eaton, Grand Valley State University and Matt Drewinski, Prep Brays Oaks

On Top of the World History is a podcast that shares ways of teaching and researching world history. Past episodes address specific topics in world history, approaches to designing the world history survey, College Board revisions to the AP World History exam, and Big History. Each podcast features book reviews and suggestions for further reading on a topic. Invited guest speakers include historians who discuss their research and methods.

The Travels of Ibn Battuta

Nick Bartel and Office of Resources for International and Area Studies, University of California, Berkeley 

The Travels of Ibn Battuta follows in the footsteps of this famous 14th century Muslim traveler, exploring the places he visited and the people he encountered. Students will explore the places and the people he saw, find information on the food he might have tasted, and take “side trips” into the past and future.

United Nations Archives and Records Management System: Exhibits and Outreach

United Nations

The United Nations Archives and Records Management System: Exhibits and Outreach site connects students and teachers interested in 20th century peacekeeping and conflict management history, Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the history of the United Nations organization and its activities. The site offers rotating digital exhibits with online access to primary sources.

Who Makes Cents?

Hosted by Jessica Ann Levy, Alex Beasley, and David Stein

Who Makes Cents: A History of Capitalism Podcast is a monthly program devoted to explaining how capitalism has changed over time. Podcast hosts interview historians and social and cultural critics about capitalism’s past, highlighting the political and economic changes that have created the present.

Wilson Center Digital Archive: International History Declassified

History and Public Policy Program, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

The Wilson Center Digital Archive offers declassified documents which can be used in teaching and for student research. This collection of primary sources relates to wide-ranging topics in history such as the 1956 Hungarian uprising, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, the 1955 Bandung Conference, the history of the Berlin Wall, China–Africa relations, and more.

Women in Antiquity

Mount Allison University, under the instruction of Chelsea Gardner (Spring 2017); Rutgers University-Camden under the instruction of Abbe Walker (Fall 2017); Mount Allison University students, under the instruction of John Fabiano (Spring 2018) 

Women in Antiquity is an online resource for the study of Greco-Roman women in the ancient world. This student-produced site addresses female gladiators during Roman times, women in medicine, women in mythology and more. Each entry features a list of references. This student-produced site can be used to engage students in content or as an example of peer-produced work. It includes resources such as instructions on how to set up a Wordpress website, and instructions regarding the project.

Women in World History

Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, George Mason University

Women in World History offers an online curriculum resource center to help high-school and college world history teachers and their students locate, analyze, and learn from primary sources related to women and gender in world history. This site includes teaching modules, case studies, and primary sources, as well as a section where scholars discuss primary source analysis strategies. Women in World History also reviews other sites focusing on women and gender. (Transcripts are available with Adobe Flash plug-in.)

World Digital Library

The Library of Congress with the support of UNESCO

World Digital Library offers access to more than 19,000 items related to 193 countries from 8000 BCE to 2000, sourced from museums and libraries around the world. Sources include books, journals, manuscripts, newspapers, static and interactive maps, timelines, interviews, visual culture, and videos.

World History Commons

George Mason University, Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, and World History Association

World History Commons includes peer-reviewed content in world and global history for teachers, scholars, and students. The site includes a methods section which offers primers in doing and teaching world history, as well as access to select digital archives and a vast array of primary sources. This site offers sources and lesson plans from ancient to contemporary world history.

World History Digital Education

World Digital Education Foundation

The World History Digital Foundation, sponsored by the Korea Foundation, offers survey instructors and AP World: Modern teachers curriculum guides to help students better understand topics such as the causes, consequences, and outcomes of the Korean War. The COVID-19 teaching module, developed in partnership with the National Council for Social Studies, examines responses to historical pandemics (from 1918) and includes e-resources and lessons specifically designed for remote teaching.

World History Encyclopedia

Ancient History Encyclopedia in partnership with UNESCO

The World History Encyclopedia’s Teaching Materials site offers “teaching bundles” which include lesson plans, worksheets, quizzes, and open questions (including answers), as well as a key terms glossary and recommended resources. Available articles include the option to hear, rather than read, and many entries feature videos with primary source images. Adaptable for secondary school and college level students.

World History (PBS)

PBS and WGBH Educational Foundation

World History offers videos, interactive media galleries, and “inquiry kits” with primary source documents. This PBS Learning Media site includes related lesson plans for all grades through 13+.