AHA Resource Library
Resources for the Discipline
The AHA’s Resource Library includes hundreds of resources developed or vetted by the AHA and our partners. Our resources range from classroom syllabi, to archival documents from the Civil War, to standards and guidelines for the discipline, and much more.
Standards & Guidelines for the Discipline
As a leader for the historical discipline, the AHA supports the work of historians in all fields and professions by setting guidelines and standards for excellence in professional behavior, research, and teaching.
Vetted Resources
Vetted Resources compiles in a central location materials and tools that have been professionally vetted by historians, offering instructors access to high-quality materials that meet professional standards.
AHA Historical Collections
The AHA has made primary sources available for research purposes, along with AHA archival reports and documents.
Academic Department Resources
The AHA provides resources and hosts a variety of events and opportunities to benefit department chairs and build community, including webinars, sessions at the annual meeting, and an in-person workshop.
#AHRSyllabus
The #AHRSyllabus is a collaborative project from the American Historical Review designed to help teachers and students look "under the hood" at how historians in the early 21st century do the work of history.
Professional & Career Resources
The AHA provides guidance, information, and job listings for historians in all stages of their careers.
Teaching Things: Material Culture in the History Classroom
Teaching Things: Material Culture in the History Classroom is a new, National Endowment for the Humanities–funded project at the American Historical Association. The digital Object Library helps teachers identify material culture sources for classroom use and includes ready-made resources and materials that teachers can use to craft lesson plans to fit their curriculum. Teaching Toolkits offer plug-and-play resources featuring object-based lessons across fields, time periods, and geographic spaces.
Teaching with Primary Sources
Teaching with Primary Sources
The AHA is proud to partner with the Library of Congress in serving the Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) Mid-Atlantic/US Territories Region. The TPS grant program furthers the Library’s mission to engage, inspire, and inform audiences across the country with a universal and enduring source of knowledge and creativity. Through the TPS Regional Program, the AHA issues subawards to a wide variety of organizations that plan to integrate the Library’s resources into educational programs.
Apply for a Grant
A broad range of education institutions and community, civic, and professional groups are eligible to apply for subgrants of up to $25,000 for projects and initiatives that expand the body of innovative strategies, tools, and resources for meaningful teaching and learning with Library of Congress materials.
Frequently Asked Questions
Learn about who is eligible to receive a grant, what the target audience is, and more answers to frequently asked questions.
History in Public Education
K–12 Education
The AHA strives to ensure that every K–12 student has access to high quality history instruction. We create resources for the classroom, advise on state and federal policy, and advocate for the vital importance of history in public education.
Freedom to Learn
The AHA’s Freedom to Learn initiative educates historians and others on how to advocate publicly for honest history education, responds directly to the bills themselves, and creates resources to help teachers directly affected by these bills think about how to maintain the integrity of their history courses.
Teaching History with Integrity
The AHA leads or participates in several initiatives to support history educators facing intensifying controversies about what we teach and how we teach it. Historians, including both scholars and educators, play a crucial role in public deliberations about how to engage students in truthful and rigorous inquiry in history classrooms.
American Lesson Plan: Teaching US History in Secondary Schools
The AHA’s 2024 report shares findings from the most comprehensive study of secondary US history education undertaken in the 21st century. The report provides empirical evidence and rigorous analysis to inform current debates over how history is taught in our schools.
The Value of a History Degree
Undergraduate Education
AHA initiatives substantiate the value of history, convene communities of practice, create resources for educators, and amplify creative and effective approaches.
History Gateways
The AHA’s History Gateways initiative explores strategies for improving introductory college-level history courses to better prepare students from all backgrounds for success in a complex society.
Core Learning Outcomes in History
What do students learn in history courses? The AHA’s Tuning Project (2012-16) asked historians to clarify and demystify the core goals and the key skills pursued in our discipline.
Supporting Two-Year Colleges
The AHA supports two-year college history faculty and students through relevant online and in-person programming, publications, advocacy, and member benefits. Learn how our initiatives amplify the efforts of this vital constituency.
Graduate Training
Graduate Education
Many historians will pursue graduate training at some stage in their career. To meet the needs of both students and graduate programs, the AHA creates resources, provides platforms, and convenes conversations about student success from application to completion.
Graduate Education Resources
This collection of resources is intended to help faculty and students integrate the ideas generated from the AHA’s Career Diversity for Historians initiative into graduate teaching and advising.
Improving Graduate Education
The AHA's Career Diversity for Historians initiative focused on better preparing graduate students and early-career historians for a range of career options, within and beyond the academy.
Career Contacts
The AHA’s Career Contacts program has arranged hundreds of informational interviews between current PhD students (junior contacts) and history PhDs (senior contacts) who have built careers beyond the professoriate.
Current Events in Historical Context
Historians Respond to Federal Actions
AHA members are providing important historical context and insight to the public on the recent actions by the federal government.
Tracking Federal Actions Affecting History
The AHA is tracking information on federal actions and their impact on history and education.
The History of Racism and Racist Violence
In response to ongoing racist violence in the United States, we have compiled a list of AHA resources on the history of racism and racist violence.
A Bibliography of Historians' Responses to COVID-19
In 2020-21, the AHA compiled a professionally vetted bibliography of historians’ responses to COVID-19.
History, the Past, and Public Culture: Results from a National Survey
This project aspired to take America’s historical pulse by assessing public perceptions of, and engagement with, the discipline of history and the past. The AHA partnered with Fairleigh Dickinson University to develop and implement a national survey that explored the public’s definition of the term “history," where audiences access history, which sources of history are perceived to be reliable, and more.
AHA Events
AHA Reads
We invite you to participate in the fourth annual AHA Summer Reading Challenge. Participants will complete three (or more) reading tasks in the months of June, July, and August. These tasks encourage you to read widely—outside your field, your areas of expertise, and your personal experiences—and define “history” as nonfiction at any length (a book, an article, a chapter).
History Behind the Headlines
History Behind the Headlines events feature prominent historians discussing the history behind current events. Open to the public and free of charge, events in this series are generously sponsored by AHA member Jared Brubaker.
Regional Conferences on Introductory History Courses
Our regional conferences endeavor to strengthen the community of practice focused on introductory history courses, both in secondary and higher education.
AHA Learn
Are you interested in the latest conversations about teaching and learning? Join us for our regular series of online programs that are free and open to the public.