American History for Students and Patriots

History isn’t a settled story — it’s an argument still in progress. American History 101 and 102 put students at the table where that argument began and carry it through to today. From the colonial era through the Civil War, and from Reconstruction to the present, these courses don’t hand students a tidy narrative to memorize. They ask the questions Americans have been fighting over since before the country existed: Who counts as free? Who holds power? What does self-government actually mean?

Every major turning point — colonization and revolution, Reconstruction and industrialization, the World Wars and civil rights — is told through conflicting vantage points. Founders’ letters and courtroom rulings sit alongside the voices of the enslaved, Indigenous nations, immigrants, laborers, and activists who lived the same moments very differently. American history was never one story; it was always several, running at once.

Both courses are built to make students think, not just remember. Lessons center on open questions rather than one-sided narratives, and “Debating the Past” features drop students into real disagreements among historians — was the Constitution a compromise or a betrayal of its own ideals? Was the New Deal a success or a half-measure? — and ask them to weigh the evidence themselves.

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