Childhood forms the core of human experience. Childhood is “a unique key to the larger human experience, from historical past to global present” (Stearns, Childhood in World History, 14). Yet, history continues to remain concerned with the big actors such as kings, queens, rulers, statesmen, revolutionaries, and leaders while children and childhood are naturalized and often fall through the cracks. Instead of assuming childhood as natural, this course brings to the fore childhood and children as important subjects of historical investigation. It will explore childhood as a dynamic and a historically constructed category that evolved differently in different contexts and changed over time. The meanings, experiences, and expectations of childhood varied according to class-caste, race, gender, religion, and other variables in different environments and time periods. Adopting a transnational and comparative approach, this course will engage in a reading of primary and secondary sources, use videos and films to investigate the role of children and childhood in different countries and cultures from antiquity to the present.

Course offers a one-semester overview of American history through a combination of lectures, reading, written assignments, and discussion. This site provides access to open print and multimedia resources; selected course readings are available via password-protected pages accessible to enrolled students.

America’s tradition as a pluralistic society dates back to before its birth as a modern nation state. Before the first European outposts of Jamestown and Plymouth were erected, North America was already populated with nearly 160 culturally different Native American tribes — without a common language. The introduction of European culture to North America only injected more diversity into an already competitive pluralistic society. The objective of this course will be to examine how such diversity influenced the arc of American history and society through a careful analysis of the people, events, themes, and consequences that shaped the American experience from the pre-Columbian to the post-Civil War period — with special attention paid to religion, culture, language, and politics, as well as class, gender, and ethnicity. At the end of the semester, you will have enough knowledge to identify recurrent themes and events in American History. You will also have the opportunity to improve your critical thinking, reading, research and writing skills through assignments where you will have to identify, contextualize, and analyze events, sources, and viewpoints within US history.

Supports the teaching of HIST 3401, 'American Pluralism to 1877,' by offering materials for customizable syllabi. These include open source textbooks, databases, primary source documents, videos and more.

The Heroic Slave is written by well-known author, publisher, and civil-rights activist, Frederick Douglass. The novella is Douglass' only published work of fiction, although the story borrows from the 1841 slave revolt aboard the brig Creole.
The work first appeared in 1852 as part of the anthology Autographs for Freedom, published by John P. Jewett and Co., in Boston, for the Rochester Ladies' Anti Slavery Society.This edition includes the full text of The Heroic Slave along with several documents to provide context for readers.

This VoiceThread activity introduces students to analyzing primary sources. It uses the document "Black Philadelphians Defend Their Votiing Rights, 1838, available from the American Yawp. The narrator models analyzing a source, and students are asked to provide their own analysis at 4 different points in the VoiceThread. 

This is a website that is developed to help other Professors teaching either within CUNY or at other institutions use ZERO Cost Texts. My slides and other resources are link so that students can easily access the materials.

This textbook examines U.S. History from before European Contact through Reconstruction, while focusing on the people and their history. Prior to its publication, History in the Making underwent a rigorous double blind peer review, a process that involved over thirty scholars who reviewed the materially carefully, objectively, and candidly in order to ensure not only its scholarly integrity but also its high standard of quality. This book provides a strong emphasis on critical thinking about US History by providing several key features in each chapter. Learning Objectives at the beginning of each chapter help students to understand what they will learn in each chapter. Before You Move On sections at the end of each main section are designed to encourage students to reflect on important concepts and test their knowledge as they read. In addition, each chapter includes Critical Thinking Exercises that ask the student to deeply explore chapter content, Key Terms, and a Chronology of events.

This course examines the history of MIT through the lens of the broader history of science and technology, and vice versa. The course covers the founding of MIT in 1861 and goes through the present, including such topics as William Barton Rogers, educational philosophy, biographies of MIT students and professors, intellectual and organizational development, the role of science, changing laboratories and practices, and MIT's relationship with Boston, the federal government, and industry. Assignments include short papers, presentations, and final paper. A number of classes are concurrent with the MIT150 Symposia.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is the autobiography of Harriet A. Jacobs, published in 1861 under the pen name Linda Brent. Well-known abolitionist Lydia Maria Child was invited by the publisher to write an introduction. Jacobs describes her life as a slave and how she gained freedom for herself and for her children.

The AFR 140 Module above is a sample lesson plan/course content of the Introduction to Africana Studies syllabus that the John Jay College of Criminal Justice Africana Studies department developed collectively. This sample module showcases the template that each faculty used to co-create the syllabus that is used for this OER course which is required for the AFR minor at our campus. This lesson plan was featured during the TLH-CUNY funded program co-facilitated by Dr. Teresa Booker, Dr. Crystal Endsley, and co-moderated by AFR students Halimah Kihulo and Christine Feliciano on Wednesday, April 21, 2021.

This course provides an overview of Asian American history and its relevance for contemporary issues. It covers the first wave of Asian immigration in the 19th century, the rise of anti-Asian movements, the experiences of Asian Americans during WWII, the emergence of the Asian American movement in the 1960s, and the new wave of post–1965 Asian immigration. The class examines the role these experiences played in the formation of Asian American ethnicity. The course addresses key societal issues such as racial stereotyping, media racism, affirmative action, the glass ceiling, the "model minority" syndrome, and anti-Asian harassment or violence. The course is taught in English.

Surveys the major political, socio-economic, and cultural changes in the Middle East from the rise of Islam to present times (A.D. 600-2002), with special emphasis on Islam's encounter with the West. Examines the rise and fall of Islamic empires; the place of Arabs, Persian and Turkic peoples, as well as minorities in Islamic society; scientific and technological achievements and their transmission to the West; and the impact of European expansion after 1800. Considers contemporary crises and upheavals facing the Middle East in light of the historical past. This course aims to provide students with a general overview of basic themes and issues in Middle Eastern history from the rise of Islam to the present, with an emphasis on the encounters and exchanges between the "Middle East" (Southwest Asia and North Africa) and the "West" (Europe and the United States).

The Italian American Studies Open Syllabus (IASOS) is a crowd-sourced digital collection of remixable resources to explore and teach the Italian diaspora in the United States. Organized by keyword, each entry offers an introductory curatorial overview alongside a selection of resources encompassing academic and non-academic texts, cultural artifacts, educational materials, and multimedia content. Aimed at both educators and individuals, it fills the gap in Open Educational Resources for Italian American Studies and caters to the community's desire to connect with their heritage. Launched in April 2024, the IASOS encourages contributions to expand its scope and represent diverse perspectives on and within the Italian American experience.

Louisa May Alcott's classic story of the March sisters was originally published in 1868 and 1869 by Roberts Brothers, Boston. This text was prepared for Project Gutenberg in 2008 with last updates in 2010.

Hitherto it had gone by the original Indian name Manna-hatta, or as some still have it, 'The Manhattoes'; but this was now decried as savage and heathenish... At length, when the council was almost in despair, a burgher, remarkable for the size and squareness of his head, proposed that they should call it New-Amsterdam. The proposition took every body by surprise; it was so striking, so apposite, so ingenious. The name was adopted by acclamation, and New-Amsterdam the metropolis was thenceforth called. --Washington Irving, 1808 In less tongue-in-cheek style, this course examines the evolution of New York City from 1607 to the present. The readings focus on the city's social and physical histories, and the class discussions compare New York's development to patterns in other cities.

A term project for undergraduate students of Latin American and/or border studies, focusing on the 1911 battle of Ciudad Juárez during the Mexican Revolution.