Introduction

This is a list of open sources (and a few not-quite open sources), organized by subject. This list is designed to provide too many sources to assign for any one U.S. since 1865 class, but few enough that a teacher can choose from among a reasonable number to shape the class how they choose. It is not meant to be definitive – many classic sources and many subjects are not included, in order to make this a manageable collection.

I do not assign a textbook. See this essay from an earlier version of this project for my reasoning. However, there is a perfectly good, collaborative open source one available here. It includes an appropriate primary source collection.

The list of links below provides a text-book free alternative. This is meant to be a resource for professionals teaching a class who already have some ideas about what they want to do – it does not provide a ready-made, off the shelf framework as a traditional textbook publisher might. But I consider that a good thing.

Some of these links lead to primary sources, some to secondary sources including articles by historians or journalists. Some are videos, some are readings, some are images. They would need to be supplemented with instructor-provided context. But they can form the backbone for a course without a textbook or a traditional primary source reader – that is how I teach my class.

These subjects are organized the way I think of them. Of course, the sources can be organized by different subjects, taught in a different order, or combined with any other sources. You will notice they focus on social history.

I assign a weekly one-page response to the assigned course materials for that week. For the first half of the class or so, I ask students to identify a thesis in what they’ve read or watched, or identify conflicting theses from more than one source, and then show what evidence the authors use to support their claims. For the second half of the class, I encourage students to formulate their own theses and defend them, using assigned materials as their sources.

I supplement that assignment with a final paper in which students are required to formulate their own historical thesis and defend it with course materials that come from at least two different weeks.

These assignments work well to help students learn how to think historically and write their ideas clearly, thinking through appropriate use of evidence. They do require a lot of grading – focused feedback is a necessary ingredient if students are to learn to make sense of these types of sources.

In general, about half of my class meetings are organized around my interactive presentation of background material – what happened in the Civil War, what happened in Reconstruction, etc. I still use images, songs, short video clips, and poems in these presentations. For the other half of our course meetings, I have students sit in a circle or divide into groups to discuss the course materials and the responses they have written.

But of course, feel free to use this compilation of sources how you see fit, for your course!