Best 20th Century History at Honors/College-Level

[fourisenough]

My DD has taken ancient world history (via CLRC GB1) and Honors Government (via Thinkwell). I would like for her to take a very robust 20th century history course next year. Rich, engaging content with a big picture focus without a ton of busy work are my priorities. Would prefer a live/recorded online class. I’d also consider an open-source class or a Great Courses series. If all those fail, I would look at an excellent spine to read.

I just finished Samantha Power’s new memoir, The Education of an Idealist, then toured UN headquarters in NYC (best $20 I spent the whole trip), and I am feeling inspired to ensure she gets a good grounding in modern world history. My older girls both took AP World, but the mile wide/inch deep coverage is a huge turn-off.

Hit me with your best recommendations.

[fourisenough]

Bump. Anyone have recs for modern history?!

[Farrar]

The history offerings for high school online are just really lacking. Other than some AP and Christian providers (which doesn't suit us), I don't know of anywhere offering serious high school history online. Which is... like, whoa. As a former classroom history teacher, I find that deeply sad.

[cintinative]

This is a Catholic provider. I have not used them and we have not taken this class. I can't tell if this is a two semester class or only one.

This one is a U.S. History course:

Modern U.S. History 1865-2000 with optional honors track  

https://view.publitas.com/homeschool-connections/2019-20-hsc-live-course-catalog/page/56-57

[cintinative]

If you are willing to not do online and to design your own course, you could use the Pages from History series from OUP. We have used multiple books from this series and they are very well done.

Some possible titles:

Modern Japan

Revolutionary Russia

The Cold War

The Modern Middle East and North Africa

The Soviet Union and Russia, 1939-2015

The Vietnam War

Twentieth Century China

World War I

World War II

Women's Rights in the United States

[dirty ethel rackham]

One of my favorite studies was our 20th Century study.  We did this with 2 other families as part of our freshman year history curriculum.  

We used https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/interpreting-the-20th-century-the-struggle-over-democracy.html with https://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Twentieth-Century/dp/1566637937.   We didn't watch every single lecture since we were doing this with other families and could only meet 3-4 times a month.  But we did outside reading based upon the course guide.  We also required a 5-10 page paper every quarter. And we also did several movie nights.  A few of the movies we watched:  Lawrence of Arabia, Das Boot, Bridge over the River Kwai, Good Night and Good Luck, October Sky, Apollo 13 and a few others.  If i were to do it again, there are some other movies I probably would have added.  

 

[....]

It looks more like you're looking for an online course or a video course, so I didn't post.  But, there's Sonlight 300 Modern History and Literature.  We did that core last year and my kids learned a ton.  I had to cut about a fourth of the books out, because my kids couldn't keep up with the reading schedule (it moves very quickly).  We used the questions in the IG as writing prompts.

[EKS]

I would consider using the second volume of Ways of the World by Robert Strayer (or the second half of a combined text) as a spine, which will cover 1450 on.  I would go quickly through the chapters leading up to the ones on the twentieth century (there are, I believe, 12 chapters in the second volume, 4 of which are about the twentieth century).  Then when you get to the twentieth century, I would slow way down and incorporate lots of supplements.  The text is incredibly well written, takes a big picture/thematic view of history, and has excellent questions.  We have found that a great way to use the questions is to discuss all of them first and then have the student choose one or two and write a short, thoughtful response.

The twentieth century chapters in Ways of the World focus on the world wars and global power, the rise and fall of communism, the end of European colonialism, and globalization.

Using Ways of the World will give you plenty of time for supplements--I'd look at the Great Courses to see if there are any that speak to things she is interested in.  Another way we've supplemented history is to find newspaper or magazine articles about contemporary issues that relate to issues of earlier times.  We then discuss them and the student writes something where they explore that relationship.  This works particularly well for twentieth century history.

What I'm suggesting here is not an online course obviously, but it is a way of "doing" history that goes beyond being simply "rigorous" and has the potential to be engaging and meaningful, not only for the student, but also for the parent/teacher/facilitator.