Any recommendations for basic middle school US/world history resources- that adults can benefit from?
Sadly I (mid-30s) bombed history in high school and cannot recall basic timelines/events. A general overview would be great, so I can at least understand what is brought up in adult conversations, as I struggle with Howard Zinn right now…
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A textbook is great when you’re standardizing learning to middle schoolers. But I’d recommend engaging with history in a way you find fun, rather than going the route that seventh graders are forced down.
If I were to start from scratch I’d look for videos I enjoy from reputable (important) sources. You can find reputable channels on /r/history pretty easily. Videos are easy to browse and find a format and topic you enjoy. From there, most good videos will have sources. If you want to read more, you can follow those up, or ideally you’ll have enough of a baseline to be able to find more of what you’re interested in to be able to read or watch more.
US/World history is too broad to say “oh just learn this and you’ll follow every conversation”. But if you find bits you like within history, you’ll be able to follow along better than before. And if you hear people talk about something interesting you still haven’t heard of, that’s a great opportunity to go learn something.
Maybe have a look at the books on amazon written by Bill Bryson? “A Short History Of Nearly Everything” etc. Also perhaps the books by Jared Diamond and/or Howard Zinn.
Tons of great history YouTubers out there.
Oversimplified, for example, makes things very palatable while also being quite entertaining. And then, you get a bunch of “History Teacher Reacts to…” to add extra depth and context.
That’s cool that you’re doing that. You could always have a read through the [Wikipedia entry on History of the US](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States). Then follow links and read further on anything that’s especially unfamiliar.
Ken Burns documentaries are great. Multimedia and video documentaries generally are helpful in terms of establishing a timeline because the more you can see paintings from the time and what they were wearing, see photos of people and architecture and cars, hear music from the time, etc., the more you can place the events in a mental timeline. Like, if Prohibition and the Harlem Renaissance are both mentally linked to jazz and black and white film of people dancing the Charleston, that’s pretty helpful.
Historical movies are also a good resource, even if they are Hollywood-ized. Sometimes the biggest hurdle to learning and actually retaining information is that you just don’t care about it. Movies make you actually care, if they’re any good.
eta- Drunk History videos are also a pretty fun way to supplement a basic timeline. You can find them on YouTube.
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