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History & Social Science · GRADES 9, 10, 11, 12

American Culture and Society

American Culture and Society course delivered fully online through immersive VR and AI-enhanced instruction.

Course sequence

Seven thematic units tracing how American identity is constructed, contested, and remade through race, gender, class, religion, media, and immigration. CrashCourse US History is the spine; specialist deep-dives surface from PBS, Stanford, and contemporary public-history channels.

UNIT 1

Defining American Culture: Myths, Exceptionalism, the American Dream

  • American exceptionalism
  • Frontier myth
  • American Dream
  • National identity
Learning resources (9)

Introduction to Native American History: Ep 1 of Crash Course Native American History ↗
CrashCourse

Developing an American identity, 1800-1848 | US history | Khan Academy ↗
Khan Academy

Visually Documenting American Identity, Then and Now | Courtney McNeil | TEDxSavannah ↗
TEDx Talks

21. Democratic Statecraft: Tocqueville's Democracy in America ↗
YaleCourses

Lawrence W. Reed: What Alexis de Tocqueville Teaches Us About American Exceptionalism — Can It Last? ↗
Foundation for Economic Education

Tocqueville's doctrine of self-interest rightly understood ↗
Acton Institute

SOCIOLOGY - Alexis De Tocqueville ↗
The School of Life

The Political Implications of Mixed Race, Transgender, and Other Identities ↗
Stanford

J D Porter and Hannah Walser: Text Mining for Race and Ethnicity in American Fiction: 1789-1964 ↗
CESTA Stanford

UNIT 2

Race and Ethnicity: Slavery, Civil Rights, Immigration

  • Slavery and Reconstruction
  • Jim Crow
  • Civil Rights Movement
  • Immigration waves
  • Black Lives Matter
Learning resources (9)

Student Civil Rights Activism: Crash Course Black American History #37 ↗
CrashCourse

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka | National Constitution Center | Khan Academy ↗
Khan Academy

Civil Rights and the 1950s: Crash Course US History #39 ↗
CrashCourse

History of the Civil Rights Movement ↗
WatchMojo.com

The CIVIL RIGHTS Movement in the 1960s [APUSH Review] ↗
Heimler's History

✊🏾 Eyes on the Prize – Part 6: Bridge to Freedom (1965) ↗
Construction Queen Consulting & Education

Henry Louis Gates: Genealogy and African American History ↗
University of California Television (UCTV)

Eyes on the Prize | American Black Journal Clip ↗
Detroit PBS

Lecture 6 | African-American Freedom Struggle (Stanford) ↗
Stanford

UNIT 3

Gender, Sexuality, and the Family

  • Suffrage
  • Second-wave feminism
  • LGBTQ+ rights
  • Family structures
Learning resources (10)

Women in the 19th Century: Crash Course US History #16 ↗
CrashCourse

Women's Suffrage: Crash Course US History #31 ↗
CrashCourse

A Brief History - Women's Suffrage ↗
A Brief Lesson in History

Women's Suffrage Movement ↗
Russell's History

Marsha P. Johnson and the Stonewall Rebellion: Crash Course Black American History #41 ↗
CrashCourse

The Civil Rights Movement EXPANDS [APUSH Review] ↗
Heimler's History

Roe v. Wade: Privacy and Liberty | The U.S. Supreme Court ↗
Hillsdale College

Roe v. Wade | Civil liberties and civil rights | US government and civics | Khan Academy ↗
Khan Academy

Teaching LGBT Studies at Yale: Maria Trumpler, Sr Lecturer in Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies ↗
Yale University

20. The Classical Feminist Tradition ↗
YaleCourses

UNIT 4

Class, Labor, and Capitalism

  • Gilded Age
  • Labor movement
  • New Deal
  • Post-industrial America
  • Inequality
Learning resources (10)

Gilded Age Politics: Crash Course US History #26 ↗
CrashCourse

The Gilded Age part 1 | The Gilded Age (1865-1898) | US History | Khan Academy ↗
Khan Academy

The New Deal: Crash Course US History #34 ↗
CrashCourse

What few people know about the program that "saved" America - Meg Jacobs ↗
TED-Ed

The Rise of INDUSTRIAL CAPITALISM [APUSH Review] ↗
Heimler's History

How Labor Unions Shape Society | Margaret Levi | TED ↗
TED

United States Labor Movement, 1969 ↗
American Archives

The History of Labor Unions ↗
Alex Cullison

Plagues & economic collapse by Ian Morris ↗
Darwin College Lecture Series

The Industrial Economy: Crash Course US History #23 ↗
CrashCourse

UNIT 5

Media, Entertainment, and Popular Culture

  • Radio → TV → internet
  • Hollywood
  • Music genres (jazz, rock, hip-hop)
  • Sports
  • Mass media
Learning resources (10)

The Roaring 20's: Crash Course US History #32 ↗
CrashCourse

What is a main idea? | Reading | Khan Academy ↗
Khan Academy

Introduction to Media Literacy: Crash Course Media Literacy #1 ↗
CrashCourse

How AI Could Save (Not Destroy) Education | Sal Khan | TED ↗
TED

Rap and Hip Hop: Crash Course Black American History #47 ↗
CrashCourse

When did baseball become baseball? ↗
The Baseball Professor

The Rise of the Moguls: The Men Who Built Hollywood | Historical Documentary | Lucasfilm ↗
Lucasfilm

01 Gumbo—Beginnings ↗
EMIS TV

Will the UAE Be the Capital of Arab Pop Culture Over the Next Decade? ↗
NYUAD Institute

The Cultural Roots of Tribalism: What Boys + Young Men Teach Us w/ Niobe Way, mod by Seth Halvorson ↗
Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College

UNIT 6

Religion, Counterculture, and Social Movements

  • Great Awakenings
  • 1960s counterculture
  • Religious diversity
  • Protest movements
Learning resources (10)

Civil Rights and the 1950s: Crash Course US History #39 ↗
CrashCourse

Continuity and change in the postwar era | Period 8: 1945-1980 | AP US History | Khan Academy ↗
Khan Academy

Youth and the COUNTERCULTURE of the 1960s [APUSH Review] ↗
Heimler's History

This Week in Thoughtful 4: Where is the Counter-Culture? ↗
Zarathustra's Serpent

The 1960s in America: Crash Course US History #40 ↗
CrashCourse

The 1960s Rebellions Began In The 1950s. Making Sense Of The 1960s Show #1. ↗
David Hoffman

1967: The Counterculture Year That Changed The World | Summer Of Love | Timeline ↗
Timeline - World History Documentaries

The Great Awakening: Spiritual Revival in Colonial America | Full Movie | Brenda Schoolfield Phd. ↗
Vision Video

"Hell," by Meghan Henning ↗
Stanford Religious Studies

How Islam Began, Fred Donner: UnCommon Core Lecture ↗
The University of Chicago

UNIT 7

Globalization, Diversity, and Contemporary Identity

  • Post-9/11 America
  • Digital culture
  • Immigration debates
  • Polarization
  • Identity politics
Learning resources (10)

The Roaring 20's: Crash Course US History #32 ↗
CrashCourse

Trade and tariffs | APⓇ Microeconomics | Khan Academy ↗
Khan Academy

Globalization theories | Society and Culture | MCAT | Khan Academy ↗
khanacademymedicine

Globalization explained (explainity® explainer video) ↗
explainitychannel

How Digital Culture Is Reshaping Our Faces and Bodies | Elise Hu | TED ↗
TED

How 9/11 changed America and the world ↗
TRT World

Total Collapse (Full Episode) | 9/11: One Day in America ↗
National Geographic

From Ground Zero To Global Conflict: 9/11 And The War On Terror ↗
The American Story - US History Documentaries

Justice: What's The Right Thing To Do? Episode 01 "THE MORAL SIDE OF MURDER" ↗
Harvard University

Why Democracy? ↗
Institute of Politics Harvard Kennedy School