| title | description |
|---|---|
Hocbigg - World History |
Path to a free self-taught education in World History! |
The World History curriculum is a comprehensive education in World History, designed for self-directed study using online materials.
This repository is organized into 2 main components:
- Core Curriculum (this page): the foundational knowledge of the field;
- Advanced Topics: focused study in specific areas;
Process: Learners may work through the curriculum independently or collaboratively, and either sequentially or selectively.
- For simplicity, courses in the Core Curriculum are ordered according to their prerequisites.
- The Core Curriculum provides a shared foundation and is intended to be completed in full.
- Advanced Topics are optional; learners are encouraged to select one area of focus and complete all courses within that topic.
Note: High-quality courses or books that do not fit into the core curriculum are listed separately in extras/courses and extras/readings.
This repository is organized into three main components:
- Core Curriculum (this page): the foundational knowledge of the field;
- Advanced Topics: focused study in specific areas;
- Projects: support learning through practical application throughout the curriculum.
Learners may work through the curriculum independently or collaboratively, and either sequentially or selectively.
- For simplicity, courses in the Core Curriculum are ordered according to their prerequisites.
- The Core Curriculum provides a shared foundation and is intended to be completed in full.
- Advanced Topics are optional; learners are encouraged to select one area of focus and complete all courses within that topic.
Practical work is integrated through the Projects section and may be undertaken alongside coursework.
-
Forums:
-
Subreddits:
-
Discord servers:
-
You can also interact through GitHub issues. If there is a problem with a course, or a change needs to be made to the curriculum, this is the place to start the conversation. Read more here.
-
Join our Discord server (for discussions around this and other curricula):
- Foundations of Historical Thinking - This section teaches you how historians actually work: how to read sources critically, evaluate evidence, and think historically. Do this before any other content.
- Big History and Human Origins - Gives you the longest possible view of the human story (from the beginning of time through early human societies). This provides essential context for everything that follows.
- Core World History: Chronological Spine - Chronological Spine The heart of the curriculum. Study these two parts in order: Early Human Societies to 1400 CE (Global) and 1400–Present (Early Modern to Contemporary World).
| Subject | Book/Text | Online Course |
|---|---|---|
| Historical Methods and Evidence | Thinking About History – Sarah Maza | MIT OpenCourseWare – Theories and Methods in the Study of History (or Stanford History Education Group (SHEG) Reading Like a Historian) |
| Subject | Book/Text | Online Course |
|---|---|---|
| Deep Time and Human Evolution | Maps of Time – David Christian | Big History Project (free, full curriculum) |
| Subject | Topics | Book/Text | Online Course |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early Human Societies to 1400 CE (Global) | Ancient river civilizations, Classical empires (Mediterranean, South Asia, East Asia), African kingdoms, Islamic worlds, East Asia, Pre-Columbian Americas, Trade networks (Silk Roads, Indian Ocean) | World History: Cultures, States, and Societies to 1500 | UVA – The Modern World (Parts One & Two) |
| 1400–Present: Early Modern to Contemporary World | Early globalization and Columbian Exchange, Industrialization and imperialism, World wars and decolonization, Cold War and globalization | OpenStax – World History, Volume 2: From 1400 | MIT OpenCourseWare – The World: 1400–Present |