Hocbigg - World History
Contents
Summary
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.
Organization
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.
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.
Practical work is integrated through the Projects section and may be undertaken alongside coursework.
Communities
- 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):
Curriculum
- 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).
Foundations of Historical Thinking
| 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) |
Big History and Human Origins
| Subject | Book/Text | Online Course |
|---|---|---|
| Deep Time and Human Evolution | Maps of Time – David Christian | Big History Project (free, full curriculum) |
Core World History: Chronological Spine
| 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 |