Great Courses: World History

This curated guide gathers high-signal university lecture series, massive open online courses (MOOCs), and comprehensive narrative audio series in World History. These resources provide structured, university-level instruction across major historical eras, regional civilizations, and global thematic transformations without requiring institutional enrollment.

• Ancient and Classical Civilizations
• Medieval and Early Modern Eras
• Revolutions, Empires, and State Formation
• The Modern World and Global Conflicts
• Trans-Regional and Thematic Histories

Ancient and Classical Civilizations

• Introduction to Ancient Greek History (HIST 205) (Open Yale Courses / Donald Kagan)
• Roman Architecture (HSAR 252) (Open Yale Courses / Diana E. E. Kleiner)
• Introduction to Ancient Egypt and Its Civilization (Coursera / University of Pennsylvania / David Silverman)

Medieval and Early Modern Eras

• The Early Middle Ages, 284–1000 (HIST 210) (Open Yale Courses / Paul Freedman)
• ChinaX: China's Past, Present and Future (edX / Harvard University / Peter K. Bol & William C. Kirby)
• Early Modern England: Politics, Religion, and Society under the Tudors and Stuarts (HIST 251) (Open Yale Courses / Keith E. Wrightson)

Revolutions, Empires, and State Formation

• The French Revolution (Coursera / University of Melbourne / Peter McPhee)
• European Civilization, 1648–1945 (HIST 202) (Open Yale Courses / John Merriman)
• The Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 1845–1877 (HIST 119) (Open Yale Courses / David W. Blight)
• Revolutions (Independent Audio / Mike Duncan)
• Empire (Goalhanger Podcasts / William Dalrymple & Anita Anand)

The Modern World and Global Conflicts

• The Modern World, Part One: Global History from 1760 to 1910 (Coursera / University of Virginia / Philip Zelikow)
• The Modern World, Part Two: Global History since 1910 (Coursera / University of Virginia / Philip Zelikow)
• France Since 1871 (HIST 276) (Open Yale Courses / John Merriman)
• The Making of Modern Ukraine (Yale University / YouTube / Timothy Snyder)

Trans-Regional and Thematic Histories

• Global History Lab: A History of the World since 1300 (edX / Princeton University / Jeremy Adelman)
• Epidemics in Western Society Since 1600 (HIST 234) (Open Yale Courses / Frank M. Snowden)
• In Our Time: History (BBC Radio 4 / Melvyn Bragg)