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History

Learn how historians investigate the past, connect events across time and place, and build evidence-based explanations.

For: Learners at any starting point

After this page you can: Choose a learning path and make a concise historical claim supported by evidence.

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About History

History is the study of the human past through evidence and interpretation. Historians ask questions about people, events and processes, then build explanations from the sources that survive. Those sources can include written records, objects, images, maps and oral accounts, and their usefulness depends on the question being asked. Because sources are partial and may support different explanations, historical understanding is argued and revised rather than simply retrieved as a complete record.

A useful way to study history is to place evidence in context: ask who created it, for whom, and under what circumstances, then compare it with other sources. Build a chronology to see sequence and change, while remembering that the periods used to organize the past are interpretive choices. World history adds connections across regions, including exchanges, conflict, migration and shared processes. You can begin with source analysis, follow a period or place that interests you, or use the world history route to connect local cases with broader patterns. As you progress, economics, writing and language can help you explore particular forces, arguments and sources.

Start here

route

I’m new to history

Start with a free world-history course that offers several period-based entry points and builds historical thinking through inquiry and evidence.

Start with: Choosing OER Project: World History

route

I’m returning to history

Use MIT’s open world-history course to revisit chronology, maps, long-distance connections and historical interpretation.

Start with: The World: 1400-Present

route

I have a specific source to analyze

Use the Library of Congress analysis tool to observe a source, question it and decide what to investigate next.

Start with: Teacher’s Guides and Analysis Tool

Learn the foundations

1.Read evidence and ask questionsHistorical source analysis considers a source’s content alongside its creator, point of view, purpose, audience, format and context.

Historical source analysis considers a source’s content alongside its creator, point of view, purpose, audience, format and context.

  • Document Analysis

    Its worksheets guide learners from meeting and observing a document to using it as historical evidence.

Primary source

An object or document that comes directly from the time period it refers to.

Secondary source

A source created after the period or event it interprets, such as a later biography.

Try it

Choose a historical photograph, document or object. Note its creator, intended audience if known, and one question you would investigate before using it as evidence.

A photograph’s creator and audience can help place it in context, but its meaning should be checked against other evidence.

2.Build a timeline and question its boundariesChronology helps organize events and developments over time, while periodization is a way historians divide history into periods that can be debated.

Chronology helps organize events and developments over time, while periodization is a way historians divide history into periods that can be debated.

  • The World: 1400-Present

    Its syllabus begins with time and world history, then examines interactions and developments across regions.

Chronology

The arrangement of events and developments in time and in relation to one another.

Try it

Make a short timeline of three events related to a topic you are studying. Name one reason your chosen period boundaries might not fit every region or group.

A timeline can show sequence, but the boundaries chosen to define a period may give more weight to one region or narrative than another.

3.Connect histories across regionsWorld history examines interactions among communities and relates events to wider regional and global processes.

World history examines interactions among communities and relates events to wider regional and global processes.

Try it

Pick one historical development and name a second region or community that might help you understand it in a wider context.

Comparing developments across regions can reveal similarities and differences and help relate a case to broader processes.

4.Explain change, continuity and causesHistorical explanations examine patterns of continuity and change and weigh relationships among multiple causes and effects.

Historical explanations examine patterns of continuity and change and weigh relationships among multiple causes and effects.

Try it

Choose an event or development. Write one possible cause, one effect and one feature that may have continued across the change.

A historical explanation can weigh several causes and effects while identifying what changed and what persisted.

Explore subtopics

World History

Survey human societies and connections across regions, from early history to the modern era, with an emphasis on evidence and interpretation.

0 subtopics

Latest

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Books

Glossary

Every free History course and book on RedLectern

Free History online courses

  1. A Global History of Architecture Writing SeminarMIT 4.696 · Browse materials · Video
  2. America in Depression and WarMIT 21H.209 · Browse materials
  3. American ClassicsMIT 21H.105 · Browse materials
  4. American ClassicsMIT 21H.105 · Browse materials
  5. American Consumer CultureMIT 21H.206 · Browse materials
  6. American History Since 1865MIT 21H.102 · Browse materials
  7. American History to 1865MIT 21H.101 · Browse materials
  8. American Urban HistoryMIT 11.013J · Browse materials
Show all 40 listed coursesShow fewer courses
  1. American Urban History IIMIT 11.014J · Browse materials
  2. Apartheid and South AfricaMIT 21H.266 · Browse materials
  3. Asia in the Modern World: Images & RepresentationsMIT 21G.027 · Browse materials · Video
  4. Black Matters: Introduction to Black StudiesMIT 24.912 · Browse materials · Video
  5. Capitalism in the Age of RevolutionMIT 21H.382 · Browse materials
  6. Cultural History of TechnologyMIT STS.464 · Browse materials
  7. Cultural Pluralism in Modern Middle EastMIT 21H.365 · Browse materials
  8. DowntownMIT 21H.234J · Browse materials
  9. Dynastic ChinaMIT 21H.151 · Browse materials · Video
  10. East Asia in the WorldMIT 21H.504 · Browse materials
  11. Economic HistoryMIT 14.731 · Browse materials
  12. Economic HistoryMIT 14.731 · Browse materials
  13. Economic History of Financial CrisesMIT 14.71 · Browse materials
  14. Empire: Introduction to Ancient and Medieval StudiesMIT 21H.007J · Browse materials
  15. European Imperialism in the 19th and 20th CenturiesMIT 21H.443 · Browse materials
  16. Food in American HistoryMIT 21H.S01 · Browse materials
  17. France, 1660-1815: Enlightenment, Revolution, NapoleonMIT 21H.346 · Browse materials
  18. Frenchness in an Era of GlobalizationMIT 21G.322J · Browse materials
  19. From Print to Digital: Technologies of the Word, 1450-PresentMIT 21H.418 · Browse materials
  20. From the Silk Road to the Great Game: China, Russia, and Central EurasiaMIT 21H.580 · Browse materials
  21. GenderMIT 21H.983 · Browse materials
  22. Gender and the Law in U.S. HistoryMIT 21H.225J · Browse materials
  23. Gender: Historical PerspectivesMIT 21H.983J · Browse materials
  24. History and Anthropology of Medicine and BiologyMIT STS.330 · Browse materials
  25. History and Philosophy of Mechanics: Newton's Principia MathematicaMIT CC.S10 · Browse materials
  26. History and Theory of Historic PreservationMIT 11.947 · Browse materials
  27. History of Media and TechnologyMIT CMS.876 · Browse materials
  28. History of ScienceMIT STS.310 · Browse materials
  29. History of Urban Form: Locating Capitalism: Producing Early Modern Cities and ObjectsMIT 4.663 · Browse materials
  30. History of Western Thought, 500-1300MIT 21H.411 · Browse materials
  31. History of Women in Science and EngineeringMIT WGS.S10 · Browse materials
  32. How to Stage a RevolutionMIT 21H.001 · Browse materials

40 of 130 shown. Search the Catalog for History →

How these courses are chosen

Listed as History courses:

  • those whose department’s name includes “History”, or
  • those whose title contains “History” or “historical”, or
  • those tagged “History” or “historical” as one of at most 2 topic tags, or as the first of 3.

Free History textbooks and books

Show all 60 listed booksShow fewer books

Search all 828 History books on the Books page →

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