26 History
Canadian History: Pre-Confederation – 2nd Edition
Canadian History: Pre-Confederation is a survey text that introduces undergraduate students to important themes in North American history to 1867. It provides room for Indigenous and European agendas and narratives, explores the connections between the territory that coalesces into the shape of modern Canada and the larger continent and world in which it operates, and engages with emergent issues in the field.
Includes: Exercises, videos, key takeaways, summaries, key terms, and short answer exercises.
May suit: HISTORY 2T03, POLSCI 2C03/2F03 and SOCIOL 2EE3.
Canadian History: Post-Confederation – 2nd Edition
This textbook introduces aspects of the history of Canada since Confederation. “Canada” in this context includes Newfoundland and all the other parts that come to be aggregated into the Dominion after 1867. Much of this text follows thematic lines. Each chapter moves chronologically but with alternative narratives in mind. What Indigenous accounts must we place in the foreground? Which structures (economic or social) determine the range of choices available to human agents of history? What environmental questions need to be raised to gain a more complete understanding of choices made in the past and their ramifications?
Includes: Exercises, videos, key points, summaries, key terms, and short answer exercises.
May suit: HISTORY 2TT3, INDIGST 1A03/1B03, POLSCI 2C03/2F03 and SOCIOL 3VV3.
World History: Cultures, States, and Societies to 1500
World History: Cultures, States, and Societies to 1500 is a peer-reviewed textbook which offers a comprehensive introduction to the history of humankind from prehistory to 1500.
Includes: High-res images and maps, chronologies, learning questions, and instructor resources.
May suit: GKROMST 1M03/2LW3 and HISTORY 1CC3/2CC3/2DD3.
Yale Lectures: The Early Middle Ages, 284–1000
This open course looks into the major developments in the political, social, and religious history of Western Europe from the accession of Diocletian to the feudal transformation.
Includes: All course materials (zipped file).
May suit: HISTORY 2DD3.
U.S. History
This open textbook covers the breadth of the chronological history of the United States and the key forces and major developments that together form the American experience, with particular attention paid to considering issues of race, class, and gender.
Includes: Instructor and student resources.
May suit: HISTORY 2R03/2RR3/2UV3/3AR3/3WW3/3XX3.
Sage American History – Era of the American Revolution
This peer-reviewed open textbook is a comprehensive look at the American Revolution, containing links to primary source documents and other resources of this important era in U.S. history.
Includes: Instructor and student resources.
May suit: HISTORY 2R03/2RR3/3AR3.
Global History and New Polycentric Approaches
This well-reviewed open textbook rethinks the ways global history is envisioned and conceptualized in diverse countries such as China, Japan, Mexico or Spain, and considers how global issues are connected with our local and national communities.
Includes: Learner exercises.
May suit: HISTORY 3DS3/3TC3.
Keys to Understanding the Middle East
This reviewed open textbook covers the fundamentals and is intended for readers who have never studied the Middle East, or experts who may wish to fill gaps in their knowledge of the region from other disciplines.
Includes: Instructor and student resources.
May suit: HISTORY 2A03.
Historical and Contemporary Realities: Movement Towards Reconciliation
This open textbook is written as a resource for educators to teach students about the Indigenous historical significance of the lands encompassing the Robinson-Huron Treaty area and more specifically the Greater Sudbury and Manitoulin area. It also, through the use of interactive mapping strategies, serves as a guide for educators to develop a similar resource to document Indigenous stories from their own areas.
Includes: Instructor and student resources.
May suit: ARTSSCI 1CC3, ENGLISH 1H03, INDGST 1A03/1AA3/2B03, SOCWORK 3I03 and SOCIOL 2EE3.
Western Civilization: A Concise History – Volume 1
This peer-reviewed open textbook is about the origins of civilization in Mesopotamia c. 8,000 BCE through the early Middle Ages in Europe c. 1,000 CE. This volume covers topics including Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia, Greece, Rome, the Islamic caliphates, and the early European Middle Ages.
May suit: HISTORY 1M03/2CC3.
Western Civilization: A Concise History – Volume 2
This open textbook looks at the early Middle Ages to the French Revolution in 1789 CE. This volume covers topics including the High Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the European conquest of the Americas, the Reformation, Absolutism. the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment.
May suit: HISTORY 2DD3/3H03/3TC3/4SS3.
Western Civilization: A Concise History – Volume 3
This open textbook looks at the Napoleonic era to the recent past. Volume 3 covers topics including the Industrial Revolution, the politics of Europe in the nineteenth century, modern European imperialism, the world wars, fascism, Nazism, and the Holocaust, the postwar era, the Cold War, and recent developments in economics and politics.
May suit: HISTORY 1DD3/2ST3/3FF3, PEACJUST 2GW3.
Confronting Canadian Migration History
This open collection of essays speak to the broad range of research being done in Canadian migration history; they also highlight the commitment of their authors to an engaged, public-facing scholarly practice.
Histories of Indigenous Peoples and Canada
The textbook introduces some of the practices and challenges of Indigenous history, focusing on the nature and quality of sources, innovative historical methodologies, and the leading historiographical trends. It turns, then, to histories of Indigenous peoples in the Western Hemisphere before ca. 1500. The twelve chapters that follow are arranged under three headings: Commerce and Allies, Engaging Colonialism, and Culture Crisis Change Challenge. And there is a thirteenth chapter that brings us deep enough into the twenty-first century to allow a visit with two of the most important recent developments in Canadian civic life: Idle No More and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
May suit: INDIGST 1A03/1AA3/1B03/2B03 and HISTORY 4DW3.
History of International Relations: A Non-European Perspective
Existing textbooks on international relations treat history in a cursory fashion and perpetuate a Euro-centric perspective. This textbook pioneers a new approach by historicizing the material traditionally taught in International Relations courses, and by explicitly focusing on non-European cases, debates and issues.
Includes: Timelines, short dictionaries, and ‘think about’ prompts.
May suit: HISTORY 1CC3/1DD3.
American History I
This text from Dr. Franklin Williamson and Dr. Tom Aiello from Gordon State University contains all modular text content used in the LMS implementation of their American History I courses. American History 1 covers topics ranging from the colonial period to the Civil War.
Includes: 60-second quizzes (with answers), and instructor resources (course syllabi, lecture slides and exercises).
May suit: HISTORY 2R03.
History in the Making: A History of the People of the United States of America to 1877
This textbook examines U.S. History from before European Contact through Reconstruction, while focusing on the people and their history.
Includes: Key concepts, test yourself (with answers), critical thinking exercises, key terms, and timelines.
May suit: HISTORY 2R03.
Modern World History
This is the textbook for an undergraduate survey course taught at all the universities and most of the colleges in the Minnesota State system. Similar courses are taught at institutions around the United States and the world, so the authors have made the text available as an open educational resource that teachers and learners can read, adapt, and reuse to meet their needs.
Includes: Questions for discussion.
May suit: HISTORY 1DD3.
Open History Seminar: Canadian History
This book brings together open resources for learning about Canadian history from the earliest times to the present. Chapters include both historical documents and secondary interpretations on a range of topics. With this book, students have access to digitized copies of original historical documents and high-quality secondary source research materials. They will learn how to critically analyze historical documents, deconstruct historical arguments, and engage with historical scholarship.
Includes: Historical documents, and discussion questions.
May suit: HISTORY 2T03/2TT3.
An Outline History of East Asia to 1200, third edition
This is the third edition of the open access textbook that arose out of a course at the University of California, San Diego, called HILD 10: East Asia: The Great Tradition. The course covers what have become two Chinas, Japan, and two Koreas from roughly 1200 BC to about AD 1200. As we say every Fall in HILD 10: “2400 years, three countries, ten weeks, no problem.” The book does not stand alone: the teacher should assign primary and secondary sources, study questions, dates to be memorized, etc. The maps mostly use the same template to enable students to compare them one to the next.
May suit: HISTORY 1CC3.
Slavery to Liberation: The African American Experience
Slavery to Liberation: The African American Experience gives instructors, students, and general readers a comprehensive and up-to-date account of African Americans’ cultural and political history, economic development, artistic expressiveness, and religious and philosophical worldviews in a critical framework. It offers sound interdisciplinary analysis of selected historical and contemporary issues surrounding the origins and manifestations of White supremacy in the United States. By placing race at the center of the work, the book offers significant lessons for understanding the institutional marginalization of Blacks in contemporary America and their historical resistance and perseverance.
Includes: Activities, discussion questions, and writing prompts.
May suit: HISTORY 2CS3.
History LibreTexts
A collection of open textbooks, assignments, and other educational resources on history.