Crash Course U.S. History
John Green
YouTube series of roughly forty short episodes covering United States history from pre-Columbian societies through the twentieth century, narrated at a fast pace with animation. Useful for orientation and review rather than depth or sourcing.
More resources on American History
A People’s History of the United States
Zinn retells United States history from the vantage of Indigenous people, enslaved people, workers, and immigrants rather than presidents and generals, giving you a conflict-centered counter-narrative to read alongside conventional textbooks.
National Archives
The US government's repository of federal records, holding founding documents, census returns, military service files, and photographs. Researchers can search digitized holdings, request records, and consult finding aids to locate primary sources for original historical research.
Gilder Lehrman Institute
A nonprofit devoted to American history education, offering digitized primary source documents, essays by academic historians, timelines, and teaching modules. Users come away able to work directly with period documents rather than relying only on textbook summaries.
ushistory.org
A free online American history textbook from the Independence Hall Association, covering pre-colonial societies through the twentieth century in short chaptered readings. Suitable as a first survey for someone who wants chronological coverage without buying a textbook.
US History
Free course covering United States history from precolonial societies to the present, built from short articles, videos, and practice questions organized by era. Includes primary-source readings, quizzes, and unit tests for checking comprehension.
Teaching Hard History
Four-season podcast from Learning for Justice, hosted by historian Hasan Kwame Jeffries, in which scholars discuss American slavery, the enslavement of Indigenous peoples, Jim Crow and the civil rights movement. Listeners gain a grounded historical narrative plus practical suggestions for teaching these subjects.