In Europe history is eurocentric, usually we treat the ancient egyptians/mesopotamia, then ancient greece, then rome,
Then things start to focus more on the region/country specific usually (eg the golden, exploration/colonial and industrial ages are different per country).
Is it the same for Americans? If medieval times is the subject is there a specific European country that is standard fare? Do you study different history in some states (eg italian history in jersey?) then in others?
Edit: thank you all so much for the responses, very insightful.
Comments
The Plague in Europe immediately before that.
We study the same things it just falls under World History. We also study the US before European Discovery
Basically the same as you described.
>Do you study different history in some states (eg italian history in jersey?) then in others?
Yes but only post-discovery history. I am from New Jersey and we did not specifically learn about Italian history
Varies wildly from state to state. Education in the US isn’t federalized.
A common sequence is a World History course, which will mostly be European, lasting a year, then a year of American history, starting with colonial times. American history courses often don’t get up to the present day, maybe through Vietnam.
I’m in my 50s so it’s been nearly forty years since I was in high school, but we had 2 years of European history, using the French Revolution as a break point (the first course was called “History to 1789”) in 9th and 10th grades, then a year of American history in 11th grade, then several options for 12th grade.
For me my high school history classes were:
9th grade: Pennsylvania history
10th grade: world cultures (so we learned a little about everything)
11th grade: civics/government
12th grade: American history
England is our POV character for medieval and early modern European history. Greece and Rome for classical history.
Other civilizations are discussed. Sumer, Egypt, Indus, Persia, China, Olmecs, Maya, Aztecs, Inca, Mississipian. A rough portrait of pre-Columbian North America is included in the setup to colonization. But Greece, Rome, and England are the main characters pre-independence.
World History is generally Egypt/Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, Medieval United Kingdom, French Revolution Ancient China/Mongolia, both World Wars, Mayan and Aztec civilizations.
There’s a bit of a special focus on England and the Magna Carta etc because of its influence on our own government
As far as I remember, we didn’t cover any specific country in greater detail than another. We studied ancient civilizations like Rome, ancient Egypt, and Mesopotamia. We covered medieval and early-modern eras like the Renaissance and Reformation. We covered modern history — industrialization, revolutions, colonialism, and the World Wars. As for American history, we covered quite a bit.
We did as you noted “ancient egyptians/mesopotamia, then ancient greece, then rome” and also the Dark Ages/Medieval times, the Vikings/Leif Erikson, the Renaissance. Largely it was focused on England/France (except the Vikings obviously).
In my school we had World History and US History as separate subjects. I think World History is pretty self explanatory and follows the same trend you mentioned. I’d say, we may have focused on England more than some other countries. For example, we studied countries like Poland or Finland very little but definitely did study Egypt, ancient Greece, and Italy more.
For US history, I believe it just more or less started with Native American history if I recall correctly.
> usually we treat the ancient egyptians/mesopotamia, then ancient greece, then rome, Then things start to focus more on the region/country specific usually
School curriculums vary by state, county, and even municipality, but broadly speaking, this sounds very similar to how we learn history here, or at least how I did. We learned about ancient history (Egypt/Greece/Rome) in elementary school, followed by pre-colonial American history.
Yeah very similar, and definitely included Medieval, dark ages, enlightenment, and other Euro stuff that either preceded or happened in tandem with the founding of the US. Some Asian history was also covered, such as Genghis Khan and everything he did, and some Chinese dynasties, and there was some coverage of Native American tribes, but mainly just where they were located and how they lived and governed. Yes, the displacement of those tribes by the US was also covered.
I do not know if this is universal but it was consistent for me and for my kids. I went to poor rural schools, they go to a wealthy urban school. In both cases, we took the highest level of classes (it’s called Advanced Placement, or AP, which just means you can take an exam at the end and get university level credit for it as well). AP classes tend to be standardized nationwide which probably resulted in my receiving better information than one would expect for the school I attended, but I cannot speak to what the on grade level classes covered. I would imagine it’s similar but can’t confirm. Also, I am afraid of what this will be like in the coming years due to the ways the federal and some state governments are interfering in education and curriculum now. There is already talk of history classes not covering things like slavery, which is a big part of US history. I haven’t seen this in my kids’ schools yet, and we are in a red state, but again, I think the fact that they take AP classes is insulating us from some of that censorship at the state level at least.
We had separate courses: US History and World History.
We learned about ancient Mesoamerican civilizations, Egypt, Greece, Rome, China, etc. Moved up into the 20th century.
I also took an optional elective in World Religions.
Massachusetts — My kid started learning about ancient civilizations in elementary school – from Americas, Africa, Middle East, and Asia.
By the time you get to high school it’s a bit of focus on US/just general “World History”, but there are other history classes as well, but not as mandatory. It’s from like 1000-1800s.
There are electives but only a fraction of people would take those.
“Classical Civilizations of Antiquity surveys the history, philosophy, art, architecture, and literary achievements of Greek and Roman Civilization. The course covers early Minoan and Mycenaean civilization through Homeric, Classical, Hellenistic, and Alexandrian Greece up through the Punic Wars, Republican Rome, Civil War Rome, Imperial Rome, and the decline of Rome. This is a course for students who have an interest in Ancient History and have not had an opportunity to investigate these enlightened, unabashed, and often violent cultures. The readings will be rich and rigorous and the subject matter will require a mature approach to the study of history. Honors and College Prep are combined in the same class. This class meets for one semester.”
Our history definitely is criticized for being Eurocentric. Pages and pages of the Ancient Greeks and Roman Empire and then you’ll get a little box off to the side that’ll be like “Meanwhile, in Japan..” and that’s about it.
World history similar to you, and the history of indigenous Americans. It’ll vary depending on where in the US you are as our curriculums are not set federally but rather left up to the states. I grew up in New Mexico and we had a big focus on the Americas prior to European colonization, particularly on our local nations (Pueblo, Navajo, Apache mostly) and those of modern-day Mexico.
You only had to take 2 years of history at my high school: US History and World History. (You had to take 4 years of “Social Studies” and could take more history electives if you wanted but other courses like Psychology, Sociology, and Philosophy also counted)
US history started with colonization. World History started with ancient civilization and was largely Eurocentric but actually went really in depth with Chinese history too
Before that in middle school and elementary school, my history education was almost entirely US focused. We would discuss global events, but in the context of the US’ involvement.
The classic overarching focus is Greece to Rome to Catholic Europe to Protestant North-Central Europe to Anglican Britain to (Congregationalist and Anglican) America.
World history when I was a kid was Egyptians, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome. My kid’s textbooks have a broader focus, expanding to include ancient civilizations in Africa, Asia and Central America.
I lived in a few places in the US. Most history concentrated on the US, with a little bit of colonial history. Indian (Native American) history was only really touched on in relation to the founding of the US & manifest destiny (westward expansion & more taking of land).
Depending on the state there may also be some special focus on state history as well. In Michigan there was a little more on the prohibition era & industrialization, in California a bit more on Spanish missionaries & the Donner Party, etc.
For my American history classes, it was split in 2 years the first was European settlement (and European legislative systems) to like 1850 or something then the next year was 1850 to modern day. I also had a separate Texas history year. World history was where I learned about other continents but we briefly touched on America/Europe when relevant
Similar broad early history. I think we get a relatively broad overview of Europe past the point you’re talking about, with the focus bouncing around depending on who was doing what.
Spanish colonialism gets a lot of focus, but not quite as much on the country’s internal history past setting that up.
I think England and France tend to get disproportionate focus, which makes sense since they “become important later” from the perspective of our own internal narrative.
Germany and Italy also get some attention, but less so than those two.
Egpyt, Greece, Rome, the Middle Ages in Europe, the Renaissance.
Our schedule in California looked like this:
Ancient and medieval history were covered in middle school, but not touched on again in the required high school curriculum.
It’s the same… apart from studying American history, I also remember studying Sumer/Ur/Mesopotamia, Egypt, Rome, Greece, Feudalism, Renaissance, British Empire, Industrialization, Scientific Revolution, Dark Ages, Middle Ages, Ancient China/Asia, WWI, WWII, Cold War, and randomly the dissolution of Yugoslavia. I also took two elective classes, in World Religions and Vietnam War.
In my highschool American History and World History were separate classes.
World History began with paleolithic and neolithic prehistory. Next we moved on to the cradle civilizations (Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Indus Valley Civilization, Ancient China, Early Mesoamerican Etc.). Then we studied other early civilizations like the Phoenicians, Mycenaeans, and Persia. After that we moved on to ancient Greece, then Rome, then the split of Rome into the eastern and western Roman empires, and finally the fall of the western Roman empire. After the fall of Rome we focused on medieval Europe, then the Renaissance, and basically followed European history to the modern day. We also had various units about pre-columbian civilizations in Latin America like the Olmecs, Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas (pre-columbian indigenous civilizations further north like the Iroquois Confederacy were taught in American history) or Chinese, Japanese, and Mongol history.
In my high school:
Depends on your state, if you’re talking public schools, or school itself if you’re talking private.
There are efforts in my county to decolonize history education. Most Americans seem to think that nothing happened in Africa between evolution (if we’re lucky that they even believe in it) and the trans-Atlantic slave trade, for example.
Each state has its own requirements, but Americans typically split history in k-12 schools into 2 categories: World History and US History.
I teach AP World History and Modern World. Your question is only relevant for AP World, which starts in the year 1200, but yes. We talk about major world civilizations and compare and contrast them, then track how they develop. By the time we get to the late 1700s it becomes the Europe show because… they took over the world.
Also, European history is super relevant to the US because we started as a British colony, our government was directly inspired by the enlightenment, and the majority were literally europeans who felt shafted by European powers.
My HS had two years of required history:
1.World History
2. US history class
There were various electives for European history, African history, Asian history, etc for anyone that wanted to deep dive onto other parts of the world since world history was obviously quite broad.
My high school classes were:
World History, which despite its name was very much focused on European/western history
European History, which covered basically the Middle Ages through the Cold War
US History, which began with colonial times and and went through approximately the Cold War era as well (this is probably because I was in high school when everything after that was too recent to be “history”)
And US Government which is about the structure of the government mostly and isn’t really a history class but has some historical basis to it
I did also have to take a Kansas state history class but that was in 8th grade (middle school)
We had basic World History and then state history, which for me was Washington state history
At my high school, History was split into 3 years of classes: World History (the stuff you mentioned like ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Medieval, etc.), US/state History (the history of the USA and our state specifically), and then US Government/Economics.
We largely view history prior to the US vicariously through an English lens with a lot of reverence toward Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome. The other countries within the UK and formerly within (Ireland) are also mentioned with some events covered, but it’s mostly English history. We learn A LOT about the Tudors and Hanovers with some War of Roses sprinkled in. There is some time on the Americas prior to contact and a look at other colonial powers, namely Spain and France. Asian history is touched upon with a larger focus on China and the Middle East with some highlights from India and maybe Japan.
For us, it was US History I which was from the revolutionary war to the civil war. US History II which was from the civil war to the present. Then we took World History which covered the time before US History I.
I took American History and Western Civilizations.
My education in missouri
Middle school – intro to colonization of the “new world” up to civil war Reconstruction
Freshman Year – civics and ethics
Sophomore year – World History. Mesopotamia until the end of the Atlantic slave trade.
Junior year US history, Reconstruction until 9/11
Senior year I wasnt required to take a history elective but I took Advanced Civics and ethics
We learned about some of the empires that existed beforehand: Inca, Aztec, Maya. We learned about the Anasazi. We learned some about Egypt and ancient Greece, but most of our focus was on the Americas.
In high-school world history, we touched on: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome.
In my schools in California there was a big focus on Spain because California missions, and also California, of course. People like Junipero Serra were whitewashed and our education made it seem like the California native Americans were willing participants in their slavery and genocide.
But we also studied Ancient Rome and the Greek gods, different types of government systems, some of Europe, but mainly US history and government/civics.
They usually start us off with state history and then dive deeper into world history as we get older. Most schools have us learn about pre-american world history through the lense of Greece, Rome, and eventually England until Christopher Columbus “discovers” America.
As others have said, this varies state by state and even district by district.
I am a history teacher in Philadelphia. We have multiple courses of history depending on your grade level:
9th grade is World History. We begin with human origins in Africa and proceed chronologically, with a separate chapter dedicated to a specific geographic location. I.e. we’ll spend a chapter on each of the first civilizations like Mesopotamia, the Indus River Valley, ancient China, Egypt, etc. Then we’ll move into the “classical” period and have a chapter on Greece, Rome, Persia, and China again. By the end of the year, we’ll have learned about sub-Saharan cultures, pre-Columbian Native Americans, medieval Europe, feudal Japan, etc. When we get to the 1500s, there’s a noticeable shift of focus to Europe due to imperialism’s impact on global events. The same is true for the US after WW2
10th grade is US History. We begin with pre-Columbian societies, but progress pretty rapidly after 1492. As the entire course is on US History, there is a considerable focus on those events and how they impacted the world
11th grade is African American History. Using what we’ve learned about World and US history, we then spend an entire year hyper-focused on the history of African Americans in US History. Philadelphia is the only district I’m aware of that mandates passing this course in high school. Most other districts break US history over 2 years (pre-Columbia to Civil War, then “Reconstruction” to current events)
12th grade is “Social Sciences.” The first half of the year we learn about US government, the second half is focused on economics. This isn’t a history class per se, but we do review how events in history caused our government and economic system to develop as they did
At my school we kinda did things backwards – state history, American history, then world history
My world history class in high school was very Eurocentric the whole way through. The only non-European history we spent any real time on was ancient Egypt.
Oh, the abuses and religious persecution pf our ancestors suffered cause them to establish the colonies.
Establishment of the colonies.
The wonderful few decades where we ruled ourselves and were left alone by the King and Parliament. Our prosperity, though small, lifting up the Empire.
The Horrors of the French and Indian war, where Americans were massacred and suffered loyally for the king, largely expelling the French from the Americas….and the many massacres during Pontiac’s rebellion that followed (the odawa having been French allies)
The betrayal of the colonies by the crown, British soldiers burning Americans out of their homes to placate the French allies.
All the other abuses of our rights as British citizens.
Us protesting to defend our rights.
The crown and parliament refusing to address our grievances.
Us being forced to leave.
We study all continents under World History class (except for Africa.) You may get a tiny bit of Egyptian history but it’s not much.
My education in Massachusetts was world history starting in 1st grade with the discovery of the new world, and the histories of the people who existed in the Americas prior to European colonization, and then the story of the Pilgrims sanitized for 1st graders how the first Thanksgiving was made and how the natives saved the European settlers from famine and disease by helping the particularly harsh winters of New England.
In my school, all the Hispanic kids were made to dress like native Americans and the white kids were the pilgrims and at our school play of Thanksgivings we reenacted the tradition of Turkey being offered to the pilgrims and we all celebrated and the pilgrims were nice and polite then NOTHING BAD HAPPENED. We learned the true story in 4th grade that in the following years the European settlers under the crown of England slaughtered the Indians in “Metacomet’s War” and Europeans called it “King Phillip’s War” and that the king’s Highway that was created in New England was forged by the retreating peoples and the sheer conquest by Europeans upon the Indians who dared attack the goodly people of the Massachusetts colony. Omitting that the pilgrims attacked first and slaughtered thousands of Indians.
Then we jump to the Revolutionary War and that’s also in 4th grade and the Founding Fathers, the Louisiana purchase and cursory knowledge of the history of the country through 5th grade. 6th grade focused on world history starting with Mesopotamia and Gilgamesh, the rise of the Sumarians. Babylon, Assyrian Empire, Egyptian so 6,000 to 2,500 years ago.
Then we transition to Hellenistic history and then Roman history. The rise of empires and the creation of the concept of nations though we are taught that tribalism was still prevalent amongst the European people and that the light of civilization was brought upon them by Rome and that Romans learned much from those they conquered. We are taught the Punic Wars. Roman republic period. The rise of the Phoenicians and the downfall thanks to the end of Carthage when Hannibal and his elephants were defeated.
6th-7th grade we focused on learning Latin and then were taught to focus on how Latin evolved to Vulgar Latin then it branched to the Romance languages. Most students take a class on US HISTORY along with World History and that includes all subjects from antiquity to the Industrial Revolution which concludes in 11th grade with electives on advance history which is Modern history and current events particularly from 1970s to present.
Advanced history starts where US history ends in the 1960s, post MLK, and in Massachusetts, the focus on historical events that in Southern states or conservative areas prefer not to discuss. History that is deemed unchristian and controversial due to the Rodney King riots, racism and the election of Obama and then Trump and how that echoes the struggles of the American people.
Also in 10th grade in my high school’s US Government and Civics class we learn about how government works and it’s one of the best courses in the country.
They say by 12th grade the average High Schooler from Massachusetts is equivalent to a upper class man of the average university student in Florida and we often joke that the average 8th grader in our state is equivalent in education to the average 12 grader in the South. Meaning we are one of the most educated people in the union.
I am older so it may not apply in the present.
There was no history taught prior to the settlement outside of why people decided to go to the continent. Even that part was selectively taught because nobody wanted to mention that a large portion of them were so religiously extreme that the round heads banished them for being too intolerant. After the initial settlement there was no history until George Washington was an adult. No need to bring up how the settlers suddenly had so much territory and why the natives seemed to only exist west of the Appalachian Mountains.
Pretty much the same, but we don’t usually mix European and American history that much. We usually are more western centric, and we call it “Western Civ” at times. We start with ancient greek civilizations, then Greeks, Romans, and then Europe, then the Americas. We might do some ancient egypt and Mesopotamia, but not much. Once the American Revolution hits, we stay focused on Europe. American history is saved for American history class.
American history is a different course where it starts with Columbus and then is pretty much all North American focused after that.
How do you discover a place where people have already lived and settled in for tens of thousands of years?
The main focus of History education is between and arrival of European imperialists to the Americas and subsequent colonization to the period just after WWII. That period is covered in depth from multiple classes.
Beyond that you get very superficial coverage of the rest of the world. Most students have a world history class where you’ll talk about ancient civilizations, then Romans and Greeks for a while. Then you’ll cover the most basic knowledge of centuries of history for a whole region for a few weeks. There is some extra time spent on British, Spanish, and French history, especially any topics or periods that inspired the colonial revolutionaries as well as a bias towards significant events in christianity.
There is also a geography class where you focus on major regions and they will sometimes cover a regions culture as part of that class.
School curriculums in the US are set at the state or local level, so this is going to vary a lot.
When I was in school, we spent middle school (grades 6-8) history learning about topics like ancient Egypt, Rome, Mesopotamia, pre-colonial America, and medieval Europe. Then in high school (grades 9-12), we spent one year learning about US History, another year learning about government & economics, and a third year learning about “World History”, which IIRC was basically European history starting with the middle ages, with a brief touch on Asia and Africa. A fourth year of history was optional, and I didn’t take it, but I think there were a few choices you could pick from.
World History. Basically any history that predates North American colonization. Including Europe (England and France), Asia (China and Mesopotamia) and South/Central America (Aztec and Mayan). Other than ancient Egypt Africa does not exist.
Here’s how it went for me: In elementary school (1st – 5th Grade), history was very, very general and focused mainly on American history. In 6th Grade, it was World History. In 7th Grade, it was American History in more detail. In 8th Grade, it was Louisiana History, since that’s the state that I lived in. In high school, it was American History in 10th Grade in even more detail, and there was no other history class at all. We did pick up some history in other high school subjects, such as civics, free enterprise, geography, English literature, music, and art, but that 10th Grade history class was the only dedicated history class in high school.
History was subject that I loved the most back then, so I learned a lot more from books and educational programming on TV. That was before those TV channels completely turned into UFOs, ice road truckers, and pawn shop nonsense.
We had:
World History I (dawn of civilization, dank river valleys, greece, rome, and medieval period and renaissance. Theme being the forces that birth and shape civilizations)
World History II (enlightenment, to colonial period, through to cold war. But most focus was on pre-20th century, and it was about half US, half non-US history. Mainly about the effects of emerging forces during this period like protestantism, capitalism, colonialism etc.)
US History (Deeper look at US history specifically, but also included the rest of the world and how that affected the USA. Learned about natives and all the colonial conflicts in greater detail. Also more detail on 20th century, world wars, and cold war than World History II had. Focus on ‘how we got to now’, the building blocks of our modern world and where this all started)
Civics (Learning how politics works, ethics, rights, constitution etc. Was lucky enough to have this class in an election year so we had LOTS of fuel)
Obligatory disclaimer: There’s no single national curriculum in the US, there’s over 10,000 separate school districts and curriculum is set at the state, district, and school level, sometimes down to the individual teacher.
That being said, in my experience. . .
There’s two broad types of history class taught in public schools, world history/world civilizations, and US history. You generally have to take at least one of both to graduate High School.
US history classes usually briefly cover civilization in North America before the first colonies, but they only give that minor coverage and quickly lead into the events leading up to the mid 1700’s and the buildup to the American Revolution.
World Civilization/World History classes start at ancient civilizations (Mesopotamia, Ancient Greece etc.) and go from there, generally focusing mostly (but not entirely) on European history, and tend to end somewhere around World War II.
When I was in school, both US and World history classes ended at the end of World War II, even though that was 50 years in the past at the time.
World history usually starts with Mesopotamia, Indus River Valley, and Ancient Egypt. China is covered to some extent.
After that it’s fairly Eurocentric with the creation of Islam thrown in.
These could just be the parts I remember though.
New York here — US and world history were taught separately, usually in different years.
European history
As others have said, things are not standardized. The closest thing we have to a standard is probably the Advanced Placement courses, which covers the following in history: https://blog.collegeboard.org/what-are-ap-history-and-social-sciences
>If medieval times is the subject is there a specific European country that is standard fare?
For what it’s worth, American schools spend very little time on the Medieval Period. There’s little attention to specific people or events until you get into the Bubonic Plague and the Renaissance. When I was in high school, we had a class in Ancient and Medieval History, and the Medieval part of that was crammed in about 4 weeks at the end of the school year, and we didn’t get much past “What is feudalism?”
>italian history in jersey?
Being from New Jersey: no, there isn’t a particular emphasis on Italian history. In high school, we read The Prince and talked about Italian unification, but we also talked about other countries as part of our European history class as well.
While New Jersey maybe has a higher Italian population than most of the country, there are still large Irish, German, English, and Latin American populations.
For me it was:
9th: Geography. Climate, demographics, languages, government, a little modern history.
10th: World History. We stopped around WWII and barely touched on WWI/WWII. This site has an overview of what was covered, https://www.oerproject.com/World-History-AP
11th: US history. Colonialism, revolution, Civil War, antebellum, reconstruction, Jim crow and segregation, Civil rights, WWI, WWII, Vietnam, Korea, Cold War, banana republics, etc.
12th: Government for half the year and economics the other half. Structure and operation of US government, the other various forms of government such as parliamentary and dictatorships. Taxes, stocks, interest, capitalism, communism, blah blah blah.
Edit: in middle school there was a year for Georgia history. Elementary and middle school had a lot of jumping around to different areas of the world and different periods. Indigenous peoples are covered here too.
Most American history curriculum is still pretty Euro-centric covering the rise of ancient civilizations in Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, Holy Roman Empire, rise of European kingdoms, Renaissance, etc. We did very little pre-Columbian history of North/South America when I was in high school — maybe a tiny bit on Mayan, Aztec cultures. Not sure how that’s changed in the couple decades since I was in school.
Other than maybe a unit of state history, there’s not much state variation in history… well now maybe Red States are no longer covering slavery or Holocaust so their kids don’t realize their parents and local leaders are racist and fascist?
European history. The usual sequence is two semesters of European history (Renaissance to French Revolution, then the Revolution to WWII), and then two of American (Revolution to Civil War, then Civil War to the Civil Rights movement)
The other two years of high school are usually spent on geography and understanding the structure of the US government and important rights and court cases
There are typically different history classes. World, U.S., and even State.
We started with the ancient world and proceeded through different eras of world history each year in elementary school focusing on American History in high school in the first year and second years, Canadian history in part of the 3rd year (first semester). I attended a small private school from K-12.
Learned Virginia history first, but as that was the first permanent English colony, some English history was thrown in there, as well as some history of the Natives who were part of the first European contact. It was intertwined from Elizabeth I to King Geoge III, with some relevent Spanish history thrown in. There was also a tiny bit of the history of Scotland/Ireland as there were so many Scots-Irish who settled here (I believe they’re also known as Ulster-Scots). A little about Germany because there were settlers here from there.
Had an overall American history which was basically an outline course. Touched on all the highlights.
Then Iater took an advanced history class in high school that went in depth with the history of the rest of the world, but no particular country took precedence, with the possible exception of the UK.
We had World History in 9th grade, about a quarter of that was religious history. US History was in 10th grade, after that we either didn’t have History as a requirement or I just don’t remember it. I smoked a lot of weed.
We had California History in 5th grade, focusing on the Spanish, the Russians, and the Americans. Some focus was on the Native population and how brutal the Spanish were. Something something weaving baskets.
We had three types of history classes. World History, much like you said, prehistoric up to modern day. U.S. history and Texas history. I have no idea if other states had their state history class.
When I was in about 8th grade we took World Cultures, which was the study of the emergence of western man from prehistory to the European Renaissance. We covered among other things, the emergence of civilization from the Tigris-Euphrates river valley, Sumeria, Babylon, ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, and the Middle Ages. We didn’t cover any one country in Europe in much depth after the fall of Rome but rather covered it pretty broadly.
This dovetailed nicely into the 9th grade US Cultures I which started with the early European colonization of the Americas at the same time period where World Cultures left off. US Cultures I covered colonization to the US Civil War. The next year was US Cultures II, which covered the Civil War to relatively modern times.
11th grade went back to World Cultures II, where we focused on the progression of eastern man into Asia and various other cultures.
I specifically remember learning about the Protestant Reformation, and Adam Smith. I’m sure there was more, but that’s what stands out.
Mesopotamia, Sumerians, Ancient Egypt, Greeks, Romans, Dark Ages, Middle Ages, European wars, New World exploration, Spanish, French, & English empires, Jamestown, Mayflower, & the 13 colonies, American Revolution, US history. It was very Western focused. The focus on other civilizations was more often than not on those that threatened the West, like the Moors and Mongols. Otherwise Asian history was barely touched. I had to learn basic Chinese & Indian history on my own, though I’m certainly no expert.
A bit of Native American history. I think it specifically focuses on the tribes found wherever you live geographically. Ottawa, Chippewa and Potawatomi tribes in Michigan. Then we went into colonialism and the American Revolution.
I did not learn anything about ancient Roman societies until college when I took a Survey of Western Civilization class. I am from an area of the country with a very strong Dutch heritage and we really did not learn much about it.
Not sure what you’re talking about. History began on July 4, 1776. Everything before that was a mistake
It really depends on the school district. Where I live, kids get baseline world and US history in middle school and then high school has more specific classes where the whole semester is spent on a specific region or time period. We live in a very big city where there are literally hundreds of high schools with varying standards, so it can also vary from school to school.
>In Europe history is eurocentric, usually we treat the ancient egyptians/mesopotamia, then ancient greece, then rome,
Same, though I loved my 10th grade history teacher, who regularly wanted to teach us about the “motherland” so we got some lessons about the kingdom of Mali, and the like.
>Then things start to focus more on the region/country specific usually (eg the golden, exploration/colonial and industrial ages are different per country).
We still stayed fairly broad in Europe. The UK gets (well, got while I was in school) a disproportionate amount of attention (probably as it relates to our founding because we get the lead in with kings and queens until the Puritans effed off) so Elizabeth, the English Civil War, all that.
Also quite a bit (expanded on by those who take European AP History) is the various wars between the Catholics and Protestants through Europe. Lots of attention on Martin Luther and the Reformation as well as the printing press. The World Wars also spent quite a bit of time on Germany and the political situation there, but did kind of downplay the role of others, when you realize it was REALLY a world war. Also the Russian Revolution up through Stalin, though then a great deal of Russian/Soviet history disappears behind the Iron Curtain and wasn’t really widely available to the west until I was out of school. I listen to a history podcast that had a whole series of lectures on the eastern front of WW2, which was a ton of information that flat out was not easily available in the mid 90s, which were my high school years. They were still debating whether Anastasia was still out there when I was in school (and the not-Disney movie came out), which has now been long settled.
History started on July 4th, 1776
For me it was
9th grade: World History (beginning with Sumer and ending with British colonialism in India)
10th grade: No direct history course. That slot was filled with U.S. government, which included some history, but was largely contemporary.
11th grade: U.S. History. Beginning with native Americans, then Columbus, and ending with the dot.com bubble. Large focuses were European colonial life, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and 1900s industrialism/unions.
12th grade: European History. Technically it began was the Etruscans and Greeks, but within a month of the class starting we were up to church reformations of Luther/King Henry VIII/Jan Hus. The course largely focused on ~1700-1900. Not much time was spent on ancient and medieval life, partially because we learned it jn 9th grade.
This was in North Carolina, about 15 years ago.
9th grade i took geography. This was focused on world wide general geography and cultural facts.
In 10th grade we took world history which convered the most important and basic world history facts starting in Mesopotamia and going from there. The age of exploration and colonialism started at the halfway point.
11th grade was AP US history so that was all about our country.
12th grade i took government/economics, also AP. This also focused on America for the second half of each class.
Egypt Greece Roman Western European exploration etc.
Eurocentric
This titled killed me.
I thought you were trolling and asking us what were American High Schools teaching before the discovery of America.
Okay, it varies. But I can talk about my high school.
In 9th grade we did ancient civilizations. From the earliest human settlements through Sumer, Babylon, Egypt, Greece, Rome, the beginnings of Islamic empires, with some focus on China, India and Mesoamerican institutions.
10th grade was European history. Starting from around the dark ages, through crusades, renaissance, Protestant reformation, English history, French Revolution, napoleon, Industrial Revolution, into the rise of communism and start of WWII.
11th grade was American History. From settlement through about the Cold War. Curriculum covered the colonial era, revolution, antebellum era, civil war, reconstruction, depression, WWI, WWII, McCarthyism, Civil Rights movement, into the end of the Cold War.
12th grade had options. You could do a course just focused on US Government, Global Politics, or General World history without a Eurocentric view.
So to answer your question, it’s varied. But it skews heavily toward Greek/roman civilizations, and then English/French history (although there’s a huge emphasis on Italy during the renaissance, and some focus on Portugal/Spain during age of exploration).
My history classes that emphasized history before U.S. history were Ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Alexander the Great, Chandragupta Maurya, Charlemagne, a morph between Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire (but more about Ancient Greece), and the Mongol Empire. Once I took AP Euro in my junior year of high school, that was my first introduction to European history that was not about Ancient Greece or the Roman Empire. I never learned about the French and the Haitian Revolutions until I was in Grad School and I majored in History.
My school district mostly cared about the PSSAs and making AYP. Even though the No Child Left Behind(NCLB) Act was enacted while I was in high school, the Every Child Succeeds Act(ESSA) was passed when I was done taking the PSSAs and Keystone Exams. AP Euro and Luzerne County Community College(LCCC) American History were the only weighted history classes my school offered, and the rest of the weighted classes were in science, math, and literature. Everyone felt we still needed to teach material, so our school district didn’t lose funding for not making AYP, so history classes were unimportant. The kids with whom I graduated, who ranked in the top 10 of my graduating class, were only exceptional in STEM courses.
The US lets the states choose their own curricula so you’ll get different answers from folks who grew up in different places.
Where I grew up, we were required to take US history, government/economics, and one other social studies. The “other social studies” could be world history but could also be something else like geography.
In middle and high school we cover most of western civilization with some side quests to ancient China/Japan/India
High school history is split into “World History” and “US History” classes separately. WH classes cover the dawn of civilization through to WW1 in a very simplified curriculum that surprisingly does not focus deeply at all on the United States and rather focuses more on the colonial and traditional empires throughout history. I believe the founding of the country is taught in elementary or middle school history classes, but I did not attend a traditional school that taught the state curriculum before high school, so I was surprised when the US history class started at the build-up to the Civil War. US history covers the mid-1800s to 9/11 and the war on terror through the POV of the US, with a big focus on the Cold War and the Red Scare.
This is how it’s set up in Florida at least, but it may vary drastically from state to state.
I do believe most Americans do not believe the world existed before America. When I was in high school we spent very little time on Europe in general. My world history class spent more time on ancient history than the middle ages. Felt heavy on the cradle of civilization area but I did go to a Catholic school at the time so might have influenced it.
We did not learn much “Dark Ages” history. It’s “Ancient Civilizations” (Egypt , Greece, Rome) and maybe some handwaved to Constantinople and Fall of Rome and monks preserving texts/civilization… Then it’s Renaissance Italy and the Reformation and Elizabethan England.
So, basically anything between 79AD and say 1492 is “Dark Ages” and we don’t know much about it
We do spend a lot of time on Europe, but also all the other continents, and, oh, also North and South America and all the rest were still here before the a few Europeans shows up, so at least in my WI history classes, we talked about that too (hello, Incas).
World history for me was pretty eurocentric, but did cover some with other parts of the world too. I also had a US history class which of focused on the North America/United States starting at the European discovery of it and bit of Native American history before.
I remember a lot of discussion about the Crusades and the court politics in England. Before that the biggest thing that sticks out is the Roman Empire.
My high school had American History in tenth grade, with a short unit on pre-1492 for the first week or two. In eleventh grade, we had European History. I don’t remember where that started, maybe with the Greeks? I don’t remember for sure, but we probably had made it to 1500 by sometime in November.
Edit to add: My school didn’t have any kind of history class on the rest of the world. Modern day Africa and Asia were covered in some other social studies classes, but nothing on history.
Hawaiian history and Polynesian history are covered pretty well. In some schools it’s a whole separate class on its own.
Outside of the Greek and Roman Empires most what we learned about Europe was in context to how it influenced America. We focused a lot of time on Martin Luther and John Calvin.
History began in 1776. Everything before that was a mistake.
Depends on the year your in HS. If i remember right, freshman was world history so stuff like the stone age era’s up to iron and what not. Then you have Greece, Egypt, the crusades, Roman Empire etc…
Then i believe Sophomore was American history. It’s been like forever
I’m in Idaho
We never talked about European history in school. We went into American Indian history instead
9th grade was ancient history, from the greaco-roman perspective before discussing medieval English history (as my history teacher pointed out, English history up until 1776 is American history).
10th grade we continued with world history after the napoleonic wars, covering the conquest of India, the carving of Africa, the Franco Prussian war, the opium wars, rise of Japan, the industrial revolution (we went really in depth for that) and ending with ww1.
11th grade was my final year I took history and it was back to US history after not discussing it since middle school. We covered ww2 and the cold war. In particular to the cold war we discussed the red scare (McCarthy-ism), hippy counter culture, mlk, and Vietnam.
I grew up in the melting pot of California, and that seemed to shape a lot of our lessons (and my memories of it). We spent a lot of time studying the European discoveries in the New World. We also learned a lot about African history. I remember learning about the Chinese dynasties, but I don’t recall much about them.
I used a shoebox to make a diorama of a Spanish mission. I think I used the same box to make a dinosaur display for a science class.
I wished cause I had been interested in medieval history, but basically all they ever end up teaching is American history (Civil War and onward) and WWII
Before what? Most my history was from the revolutionary war to present. There was some about Columbus discovering America and the Puritans settling, which is basically just the Salem witch trials. Yeah, 2 units, about a month of my k-12 education was pre 1776. Which is funny because the colonies have a rich history pre declaration of independence
I think we were only required to take World History and US History to graduate highschool. The US History had an advanced version.
World History essentially speedruns up to where it runs into US History. I think it concluded around the time we got to the discovery of the Americas or maybe with a cursory look at pre-Columbian civilizations like the Mayans, Aztecs, and Incas. I remember Olmecs being in the mix somewhere.
There’s a lot to get through, as you can imagine, so it’s not very detailed. It was largely focused on Europe and the Mediterranean, as that has the most bearing on the US. There were units on China and Japan, and maybe India. I’m sure the Mongols made an appearance. Those felt like little detours, and largely were used to introduce the concept of global trade and the reason for people to go explore the oceans.
I’m going to first say that America wasn’t “discovered.” There were a multitude of indigenous peoples all over North and South America. That statement in and of itself is adopting a colonizer mentality.
I will say that history in my state is segmented into three broad categories – world history, US history, and Alaska history. Both US history and Alaska studies cover what happened on this land far before there were any formal colonies, territories, or states.
If you really want a deep dive into this you can look at a pdf document of Alaska’s social studies standards here.
I’m a middle/high school history teacher in America.
States all have different standards. There’s no single order or curriculum that is taught across the US. School districts are hyperlocal, being controlled by a local, elected school board. You won’t get a “correct” answer to your question.
Elementary education is a sampler. A bit here a bit there. Kind of building a foundation.
In Ohio where I teach it goes like this: 6th – prehistory, Neolithic up till Egypt and ancient China. 7th – broad, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines Ottomans, China, Native Americans, Renaissance, a bit of African history, geography, up till the Age of Exploration. 8th – pulls back in to focus on US history. Columbus, colonization of the Americas, French and Indian War, US Revolution, then a tight focus on US history up until Reconstruction (~1877). High School (9-12) is Modern US history (1877-present), World History (kind of a repeat of 7th with more focus on world history since the Enlightenment), Geography, Economics and US Government.
We talk about Greece, a bit about Rome, lots of Vikings, and then we kinda just jump to the Americas.
I know next to nothing about actual European history from high school.
Very Eurocentric but dabbles into Asia on occasion
What history before America
Georgia here- we did a mix of world history but it was mostly the beginnings of recorded civilization- Mesopotamia to the Nile valley and the eventually the Roman Empire and its impact on Europe and the Mediterranean. Not much on South America or Asia. We studied a good bit about native Americans before Europeans arrived as well.
For us on this side of the pond, lesson 1 is about Christopher Columbus raising funds for his trip and later discovery LOL. Sometime later we talk about how maybe Leif Ericson found it first.
European history mostly though we learn about greek democracy and the roman republic.
Native American tribes were a substantial portion of curriculum in my state. World Cultures, and ancient history, were as well.
i remember covering various river valley civilizations, abrahamic faiths, hinduism and buddhism, the vikings, the mongol empire and briefly touched on the mesoamerican/south american empires
Think about who colonized America
There’s your answer
We had different classes for world history, American history, and the history of our state.
In elementary school (ages 6 through 12) we touched on all three, with world history as the focus near the end. It started with the Egyptians. This was all during the 1970s.
In junior high (roughly ages 13-15) we had the history of our state.
In high school (up through age 18) we had world history and American history. World history started with the Egyptians again. Unfortunately, there was very little on Mesopotamia, which interests me a lot more that Egypt. We were supposed to go through things up to current times over the course of a couple of semesters, but the last teacher dragged her feet and barely got us past the American Civil War. Luckily my mother was a history teacher, so I ended up learning all the parts that I missed in high school.
We took world history 1 which covered world history from early hominids to c1500. This covered Asia and Europe better than other continents but we did cover them.
Then World History 2 which covered 1500 to the 1960s. Weirdly I mostly remember covering WWI and the Communist Revolution in China. I don’t think we spent more time on them but it’s what stuck with
me for whatever reason.
US History was a separate class we took after world history.
I’m sure we learned about more each year but these are the topics I remember from each year in school
2nd grade, basics about local Native American life
3rd, colonial America, revolutionary war, Pennsylvania history
4th, slavery and civil war, world religion
5th, age of exploration
6th, don’t remember
7th, ancient European history, Greece, Rome, Goths, Egypt
8th, Colonial America, Revolutionary war
9th, Slavery, civil war, reconstruction
10th, WW1, WW2, Korean War, Vietnam war
11th World History, European, Indian, Chinese, World Religion
12th, not sure if I took a history class this year.
There was no universal schooling until Nathan Hale here. So nothing
For me it went like this
Sixth Grade: Early civilizations. We covered Mesopotamia, Egypt, early Chinese civilization and the Indus River Valley civilization.
Seventh Grade: Classical History (mostly Greeks and Romans) up through the middle ages and renaissance (mostly focused on Europe)
Eighth Grade: Early American history. I think it was from colonial times up through the Civil War
Ninth Grade: World history. We started at the age of enlightenment and went up to present day. Most of this was focused on Europe and Asia.
Tenth Grade: American history from the Reconstruction up to the present
And that was where mandatory history classes ended. If you didn’t want to take history, they made you move on to government and economics, but as a history buff, I chose to take AP European History for my eleventh grade social studies course. For that we covered ancient times to the present, but again, that class was optional.
Native American history, usually
I mean other posters have mentioned that American education doesn’t have a federal standard so you’re going to get vastly different answers but the general sequence of courses tends to be the same.
For me it ended shaping out like this:
9th: Research Methods (sem 1) / World History to 1500
10th: World History 1500-present
11th: American History
12th: American Foreign Policy/ Current Events/ American Politics
University: Gen ed course of choice that fills the credit requirements
I mean this sincerely as an idiot that received multiple degrees in this subject, history only becomes more focused and specialized if you decide to take 300 or 400 level university courses or god forbid you decide to torture yourself and go to grad school for history.
First and second year courses are just gen ed classes that rehash high school info but on a deeper level and with professors that give a shit about the subject and not football coaches for teachers. I can’t speak for every state but yeah the one I went to uni in did have specific courses pertinent to the state’s history. And yeah basically if someone really likes a certain historical event, era, country, etc you can bet there will be a hyper specific course about it for one semester that 5 other nerds will also sign up for to talk about each week.
We did world history covering ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Medieval had the main focus in areas Europe/Middle East. Pre-Columbus Americas with a focus on the Aztecs, Incans, and Mayans. Asia wasn’t touched on as much as it could have been. Australia and the Pacific islands were not touched at all.
My Texas history class covered a lot of the specific native tribes in Texas. Then, it moved into contact and then the various countries that owned Texas land. The Texas Revolution (and how it was another fight over owning slaves). Short time as a country. Statehood. Mexican-American War. Gets fuzzy here, but I remember talking about Bonnie and Clyde and the Texas Rangers. The last thing covered was the USS Texas in WW2.
US history was in two parts. Pre-columbus to Civil War. Then, Civil War into modern times.
Also had a world geography class. I still remember having to fill in a map with the names of all the countries of Africa.
When I took AP European History, we actually discussed multiple different regions within the same time period like how you described it is in Europe.
Before that, England was the main character whenever Medieval times were discussed, modern day Germany’s role was discussed in the fall of the Western Roman Empire. I didn’t grow up on the East Coast, so I don’t know if it’s different there, but from my experience we didn’t really discuss European roots on a state basis. They just glossed over the early 1900s immigration patterns from Europe to America generally, no specific country or place.
I don’t know about others, we had western civ, world history, and state history in addition to US history in my school
Education is state run here so it’s going to be different for everyone. We talked about the dark ages and renaissance. Egypt was big, and the aztec. Also often discussed: Columbus, the conquistadors, the inquisition, and crusades. There was some history of the people indigenous to North America pre Columbus too.
We learned in ages during the 70s-80s. Such as medieval ages, renaissance age, etc. If course we had a heavy focus on American History. But we studied the great civilizations. Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Europeans, Byzantine Empire, Celts, I could go on. We went through WWII but there was so much to discuss and go through. We did 6 weeks of study just on Communism. I was in advanced college preparatory classes. It was all very interesting to me. Hope this helped.
All of it. Yes, including the discovery of fire.
Each state does it differently and it changes over years so you’ll hear a lot of variety in answers.
There’s often some component of ancient world history (China, Mesopotamia, and MesoAmerica are common, classic civilization, Enlightenment, explorers, Native Americans/pre-US. The stuff that’s needed to understand American history essentially
I can only speak for my school, but from 6th grade through high school, we studied pre-Columbian history for a full year. We also did a full year of Asian history, split mostly between China and India. We did another year of ancient Mediterranean/Middle Eastern history, which was most Greece, Roman, and Egypt. The rest was European and American history. All of it stopped at about 1900. I think more was on the curriculum but we always ran behind schedule.
This is so varied by state. Each state has their own standards so there’s not a clear answer. In some places, studying history has been given up for more math and reading (sad, I know because I love history) or has been replaced by social studies. In my state, history is the only subject that isn’t tested on our standardized tests (although you do have to pass a civics exam to graduate).
Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome are touched on. Especially Rome, but when I was young, anyway, it was mostly starting with the first English settlements in the US. We are, or at least in my experience, very US centric.
In 1999-2003 (highschool years) we learned what I would imagine anyone in Europe would learn. We also had specialized classes like Asian studies (we were lucky we were also in a college town). In addition, we learned about the very awful and true treatment of the Native American peoples and their cultures and that they’d been here for thousands of years (we also happened to be on the Trail of Tears route, which made me very sad and angry at times), along with the Tulsa Race Massacres. We were extremely lucky to have “woke” teachers and professors in American highschool and it set me up for university in the most informed way possible. I feel bad for people that grew up in areas with teachers that only told history and culture from a white persons perspective.