World History Readings Resources

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_history

Sometimes it can be an arduous task collating primary sources for the World History classroom. At my Flipped History Classroom presentation and the CCSS Publications Committee session I mentioned a few repositories for World History primary sources that I have stumbled upon and have been very helpful. Participants asked for a blog entry on World History primary resources for activities and here we are. The repositories below will help you to select World History artifacts to engage your students in inquiry and meet the Common Core. I have also included Merlot II which is a database of not only primary source materials but also topic specific sites with activities and primary sources in many cases. Enjoy!

World HistoryDigital Library The World Digital Library makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world. The principal objectives of the WDL are to promote international and intercultural understanding, expand the volume and variety of cultural content on the Internet, provide resources for educators, scholars, and general audiences, and build capacity in partner institutions to narrow the digital divide within and between countries. You can search the repository by regions and eras, as well as by a few languages including Spanish.

Universityof San Diego Library Guides I was ecstatic to come across this one on my Twitter feed from Chris Long (@clonghb). The University of San Diego has compiled subject listings of primary sources available online: free web collections as well as UCSD subscription-based resources. It includes a custom Google search engine to key word search across many of the listed sites. As a teacher, if you take a public school letter head note from your administrator verifying that you are a teacher at a public institution you can recieve a UC library card and gain access to their resources- a tip I learned two summers ago at UC Berkeley. 

Internet History SourceBooks Project Fordham University has created a collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts for educational use. They have divided the collections into three eras: Ancient History, Medieval History, and Modern History. Each collection has been further broken down. Fordham has also enabled search of their collections by topic and region. 

Merlot II Merlot is a free and open peer reviewed collection of online teaching and learning materials contributed and used by an international education community. Select an are from the left scroll bar and let the browsing begin.