Key takeaways
- The core history sequence consists of World History, American History, and Remarkable Biographies.
- Honors World History combines Great Courses lectures, a spine text, and bestselling history books like Sapiens and Guns, Germs and Steel.
- Standard World History uses the same lecuture series, but supplements with a collection of historical fiction for young people.
- American History uses the Great Courses series The History of the United States alongside primary sources, historical literature, and a modern immigrant memoir, aiming for balance rather than a political agenda.
- American History includes a research paper in the second semester, with a research guide provided.
- Remarkable Biographies lets students choose 10 of 20 offered biographies across categories like scientists, statesmen, spiritual leaders, survivors, and explorers, concluding with a short essay.
Overview
Our core curriculum history courses are World History, American History and Remarkable Biographies.
World History
This course builds upon the four years of world history studied in the elementary grades to gain an understanding of the broad trends that will continue to shape human history into the future. We offer two course options, Honors World History and standard World History, both of which include enough material for one high-school credit in history.
There are three main components to the Honors World History course: a series of lectures on world civilizations from the Great Courses, "spine" texts that present the facts of world history, and several popular history books for adults which examine key trends in human history.
The standard World History course is built around the same Great Courses lecture series and spine text as the Honors World History course. The difference is that the honors course supplements these with challenging books on broad historical themes written for adults, whereas the standard course instead assigns a variety of historical novels and memoirs.
The popular history books start and end with Sapiens and Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari, which examine the major drivers of human history to elucidate key issues of the future. In between, The World Until Yesterday examines how modern civilization differs from traditional hunter-gatherer cultures, Guns, Germs and Steel traces how geography led to Eurasian dominance, and Collapse studies how various cultures have dealt with environmental degradation.
Finally, several excellent historic movies are included as part of the curriculum. These are optional but highly recommended as they bring to life the people and historical periods being studied.
Each course includes a research paper assignment on a self-chosen topic in world history.
American History
American history courses often suffer from bias. Some whitewash negative events (especially recent ones) in an effort to instill patriotism. Others dwell so much on America's wrongs that they make students ashamed of their country.
We aim to present American history in a balanced way, fostering appreciation of America's unique contributions without any political agenda. The course materials are selected with this goal in mind.
We use as a framework the excellent and comprehensive course The History of the United States, from Great Courses. This course includes 84 lectures and should take a full academic year to complete at the rate of two lectures per week.
As with world history, students can choose either a standard or honors course option in American history. Honors American History is intended for strong readers and writers who are comfortable reading primary sources and classic literature. Reading selections include the autobiographies of Benjamin Franklin and Frederick Douglas, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and several works of classic American literature as well as contemporary memoirs.
The standard American History course uses the same lecture series as Honors American History, but whereas the honors course includes extensive primary sources and classic literature for its supplementary readings, the standard course instead includes a variety of historical fiction novels written for young people.
Both courses include a research paper at the end of the second semester, on a topic in American History of your choice.
As does World History, this course includes several excellent movies that elucidate key periods in American history.
Remarkable Biographies
This course invites you to experience the lives of great or remarkable men and women through biographies.
Each month, students choose a biography to read from among the options presented. The schedule includes two options each month, but you may choose a biography from a different month if you prefer. By the end of the course, you should have read ten of the twenty options offered.
We include remarkable biographies from a wide range of times and walks of life. Here is a rough categorization:
August - September: Scientists and inventors. October - November: Statesmen and advocates for social change. December - January: Spiritual leaders. February - March: Survivors who have transcended terrible circumstances. April - May: Explorers who have left comfortable lives to seek new insights and experiences.
The course concludes with a short essay writing assignment.
Great books allow us to experience life many times over from the perspective of others, and provide examples to inspire us. Biographies do these things especially well. We hope this course will be the start of a lifelong enjoyment of remarkable biographies.