6 History
History (HIS)
Canadian History: Pre-Confederation
John Douglas Belshaw (Thompson Rivers University)
2015
Licence: CC BY 4.0
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 Aboriginal 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. The material is pursued in a largely chronological manner to the early 19th century, at which point social, economic, and political change are dissected.
Formats: Pressbooks WebBook, EPUB, PDF, MOBI, and more
Includes: Exercises, key terms, glossary, section-by-section key points, and instructor videos (under Additional Resources)
Reviews: eCampusOntario Open Library – Open Textbook Library – BCcampus
Suggested for:
HIS 1101 The Making of Canada
Canadian History: Post-Confederation
John Douglas Belshaw (Thompson Rivers University)
2016
Licence: CC BY 4.0
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 Aboriginal 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? Each chapter is comprised of several sections and some of those are further divided. In many instances you will encounter original material that has been contributed by other university historians from across Canada who are leaders in their respective fields. They provide a diversity of voices on the subject of the nation’s history and, thus, an opportunity to experience some of the complexities of understanding and approaching the past.
Formats: Pressbooks WebBook, EPUB, PDF, MOBI, and more
Includes: Learning objectives, key points, key terms, glossary, short answer exercises, suggested readings, and interviews with historians (under Additional Resources)
Reviews: BCcampus
Suggested for:
HIS 1101 The Making of Canada
Open History Seminar: Canadian History
Sean Kheraj (York University) and Thomas Pearce (Huron University College)
2018
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
This book is an open-access collection of primary and secondary sources for Canadian history. It is suitable for use at both the secondary and post-secondary levels. Open History Seminar: Canadian History 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.
Format: Pressbooks WebBook
Includes: Documents and discussion questions
Reviews: At the end of each chapter
Suggested for:
HIS 1101 The Making of Canada
Confronting Canadian Migration History
Edited by Daniel Ross (Université du Québec à Montréal)
2019
Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0
The essays published here 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. Read together, we believe they offer a much-needed historical perspective on contemporary Canadian debates around immigration and refuge, questions that cut to the heart of who we are as a society. Part of Active History ebook series.
Formats: Pressbooks WebBook, EPUB, PDF, and MOBI
Suggested for:
HIS 2130 The Peopling of North America
Canada and Speeches from the Throne: Narrating a Nation, 1935-2015
Alexander Washkowsky, Braden Sapara, Brady Dean, Sarah Hoag, Rebecca Morris-Hurl, Dayle Steffen, Joshua Switzer, and Deklen Wolbaum (University of Regina)
2020
Licence: CC BY 4.0
The Speech from the Throne is one of the most important moments in the Canadian Parliamentary calendar. It signals the beginning of a new Parliament, and it lays out the government’s agenda for the upcoming session as well as the Prime Minister’s vision for the country. In this book, senior undergraduate students and graduate students enrolled in their History course on Canadian Political History at the University of Regina in the fall of 2020 researched how Prime Ministers have articulate a national identity through their speeches marking the opening of Parliament. It offers their perspective on the engaging question of Canadian identity.
Formats: Pressbooks WebBook, EPUB, PDF, and MOBI
Suggested for:
HIS 2364 Contemporary Canada
Critical Perspectives on Migration in the Twenty-First Century
Edited by Marianna Karakoulaki, Laura Southgate, and Jakob Steiner (e-International Relations)
2018
Licence: CC BY-NC 4.0
This text covers concepts in 21st-century migration, from human rights to the 2015 migrant crisis.
Formats: Online and PDF
Suggested for:
HIS 1110 Introduction to Global History
Globalization and Labour in the Twenty-First Century
Verity Burgmann (Monash University/University of Melbourne)
2016
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
This text covers introductory concepts in globalization and the human condition, from capitalism to labour in the twenty-first century.
Formats: Online and PDF
Suggested for:
HIS 1111 The Twentieth-Century World from 1945
Global History and New Polycentric Approaches: Europe, Asia and the Americas in a World Network System
Edited by Manuel Perez Garcia (Shanghai Jiao Tong University) and Lucio De Sousa (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies)
2018
Licence: CC BY 4.0
Rethinking the ways global history is envisioned and conceptualized in diverse countries such as China, Japan, Mexico or Spain, this collection considers how global issues are connected with our local and national communities. It examines how the discipline had evolved in various historiographies, from Anglo Saxon to southern European, and its emergence in Asia with the rapid development of the Chinese economy motivation to legitimate the current uniqueness of the history and economy of the nation. It contributes to the revitalization of the field of global history in Chinese historiography, which have been dominated by national narratives and promotes a debate to open new venues in which important features such as scholarly mobility, diversity and internationalization are firmly rooted, putting aside national specificities. Dealing with new approaches on the use of empirical data by framing the proper questions and hypotheses and connecting western and eastern sources, this text opens a new forum of discussion on how global history has penetrated in western and eastern historiographies, moving the pivotal axis of analysis from national perspectives to open new venues of global history (Description from publisher Palgrave Macmillan)
Formats: Online, PDF, and EPUB
Reviews: Springer
Suggested for:
HIS 1110 Introduction to Global History
HIS 1111 The Twentieth-Century World from 1945
World History: Cultures, States, and Societies to 1500
Eugene Berger, George L. Israel, Charlotte Miller, Brian Parkinson, Andrew Reeves, and Nadejda Williams (University System of Georgia)
2016
Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0
World History: Cultures, States, and Societies to 1500 is a peer-reviewed textbook that offers a comprehensive introduction to the history of humankind from prehistory to 1500. It covers such cultures, states, and societies as Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Israel, Dynastic Egypt, India’s Classical Age, the Dynasties of China, Archaic Greece, the Roman Empire, Islam, Medieval Africa, the Americas, and the Khanates of Central Asia.
Format: PDF
Includes: 350 images and maps, chronologies, and learning questions
Reviews: Open Textbook Library
Suggested for:
HIS 1110 Introduction to Global History
HIS 3110 Topics in Ancient History
Modern World History
Dan Allosso (Bemidji State University) and Tom Williford (Southwest Minnesota State University)
2021
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
This is the textbook for an undergraduate survey course taught at all the universities and most of the colleges in the Minnesota State system. Readers of this text may have varying levels of familiarity with the events of World History before the modern period it covers. Occasionally understanding the text may require a bit of background that will help contextualize the material we are covering. See the book’s introduction for details.
Formats: Pressbooks WebBooks, EPUB, PDF, and MOBI
Includes: Discussion questions
Suggested for:
HIS 1110 Introduction to Global History
HIS 1111 The Twentieth-Century World from 1945
Western Civilization: A Concise History – Volume 1
Christopher Brooks (Portland Community College)
Last updated: February 2020 (2nd edition)
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Volume 1 covers introductory concepts in western civilization, from the origins of civilization in Mesopotamia c. 8,000 BCE through the early Middle Ages in Europe c. 1,000 CE. Topics include Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia, Greece, Rome, the Islamic caliphates, and the early European Middle Ages.
Formats: Google doc (can be saved as a PDF)
Includes: Maps and illustrations
Reviews: Open Textbook Library
Suggested for:
HIS 2101/CLA 2101 The Beginning of Greek Civilization
HIS 2102/CLA 2102 Athens, Persia, and Sparta
HIS 2103/CLA 2103 The Republic
HIS 2104/CLA 2104 The Early Empire
HIS 3110/CLA 3110 Topics in Ancient History
Western Civilization: A Concise History – Volume 2
Christopher Brooks (Portland Community College)
2019
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
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, the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment.
Formats: PDF and Google Doc
Reviews: Open Textbook Library
Suggested for:
HIS 1120 What Is Europe? (16th-21st Century)
HIS 2235 Deciphering the Medieval Era: Western Europe from the 5th to the 15th Century
HIS 2336 Early Modern Europe, 16th to 18th Century
Western Civilization: A Concise History – Volume 3
Christopher Brooks (Portland Community College)
2019
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
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.
Formats: PDF and Google Doc
Reviews: Open Textbook Library
Suggested for:
HIS 1120 What Is Europe? (16th-21st Century)
HIS 2341 Europe in the 19th Century
HIS 2342 Europe in the 20th Century
History in the Making: A History of the People of the United States of America to 1877
Catherine Locks (Fort Valley State University), Sarah K. Mergel (Dalton State College), Pamela Thomas Roseman (Georgia Perimeter College), and Tamara Spike (University of North Georgia)
2013
Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0
This textbook examines U.S. History from before European Contact through Reconstruction, while focusing on the people and their history.
Formats: PDF
Includes: Learning objectives, critical thinking exercises, key terms, and chronology
Reviews: Open Textbook Library
Suggested for:
HIS 2151 The United States from 1750 to 1877
The American Yawp Vol. 1: Before 1877
Edited by Joseph L. Locke (University of Houston-Victoria) and Ben Wright (University of Texas at Dallas)
2019
Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0
The American Yawp is a free, online, collaboratively built American history textbook. Over 300 historians joined together to create the book they wanted for their own students—an accessible, synthetic narrative that reflects the best of recent historical scholarship and provides a jumping-off point for discussions in the U.S. history classroom and beyond.
Formats: Online and PDF
Includes: Primary source reader, discussion questions, key terms, and quizzes
Reviews: Open Textbook Library – Stanford University Press (under Reviews tab)
Suggested for:
HIS 2151 The United States from 1750 to 1877
The American Yawp Vol. II: Since 1877
Edited by Joseph L. Locke (University of Houston-Victoria) and Ben Wright (University of Texas at Dallas)
2019
Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0
The American Yawp is a free, online, collaboratively built American history textbook. Over 300 historians joined together to create the book they wanted for their own students—an accessible, synthetic narrative that reflects the best of recent historical scholarship and provides a jumping-off point for discussions in the U.S. history classroom and beyond.
Formats: Online and PDF
Includes: Primary source reader, discussion questions, key terms, and quizzes
Reviews: Open Textbook Library – Stanford University Press (under Reviews tab)
Suggested for:
HIS 2152 The United States from 1877 to 1945
HIS 2153 The United States for 1945 to the Present
U.S. History
P. Scott Corbett (Ventura College), Volker Janssen (California State University-Fullerton), and James M. Lund (Keene State College) (OpenStax)
2015
Licence: CC BY 4.0
U.S. History covers the breadth of the chronological history of the United States and also provides the necessary depth to ensure the course is manageable for instructors and students alike. U.S. History is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of most courses. The authors introduce key forces and major developments that together form the American experience, with particular attention paid to considering issues of race, class, and gender. The text provides a balanced approach to U.S. history, considering the people, events, and ideas that have shaped the United States from both the top-down (politics, economics, diplomacy) and bottom-up (eyewitness accounts, lived experience).
Formats: Online and PDF; online LibreTexts version
Includes: Key terms, summary, review questions, critical thinking questions, and answer key
Reviews: Open Textbook Library
Suggested for:
HIS 2151 The United States from 1750 to 1877
HIS 2152 The United States from 1877 to 1945
HIS 2153 The United States for 1945 to the Present
Keys to Understanding the Middle East: Diverse Perspectives
Alam Payind and Melinda McClimans (Ohio State University)
2017
Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0
This book 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. Whether for establishing or deepening one’s knowledge of the region, these fundamentals are important to know. The languages, cultural, religious and sectarian communities of the region, and selected turning points and influential people in history are starting points for gaining an understanding of the diverse contexts of the region.
Formats: Pressbooks WebBook and PDF
Includes: Image galleries, visual aids, and key elements
Reviews: Open Textbook Library
Suggested for:
HIS 2106 History of the Middle East from World War I
History of International Relations: A Non-European Perspective
Erik Ringmar (Ibn Haldun University, Turkey)
2019
Licence: CC BY 4.0
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. The volume is divided into three parts. The first part focuses on the international systems that traditionally existed in Europe, East Asia, pre-Columbian Central and South America, Africa and Polynesia. The second part discusses the ways in which these international systems were brought into contact with each other through the agency of Mongols in Central Asia, Arabs in the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, Indic and Sinic societies in South East Asia, and the Europeans through their travels and colonial expansion. The concluding section concerns contemporary issues: the processes of decolonization, neo-colonialism and globalization – and their consequences on contemporary society.
Formats: Online and PDF
Inludes: Timelines, short dictionary, and review questions
Reviews: Open Textbook Library
Suggested for:
HIS 4540 Séminaire en histoire des relations internationales
HIS 7773 Seminar on International Relations
An Outline History of East Asia to 1200
Sarah Schneewind (University of California, San Diego)
2020
Licence: CC BY-NC 4.0
This open-access textbook 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.
Format: PDF
Suggested for:
HIS 2177 History of East Asia from Antiquity to 1600
