Free ebookAmerican History: A Clear Timeline from 1492 to the Present

Course Description

American History: A Clear Timeline from 1492 to the Present is a practical, beginner friendly ebook course in Basic studies and History that helps you understand how the United States developed from first contacts in North America to today’s debates about democracy, rights, and institutions. Built around a clear chronological storyline, it gives you the context to read headlines, visit museums, follow civic discussions, and make sense of turning points that shaped American society.

You will move step by step through colonization, colonial societies, and the growth of self government, then into the imperial crisis that sparked revolution and the creation of the United States. The course explains how the Constitution, federal power, and evolving ideas about rights became central to political life, while expansion transformed the map and intensified conflict through removal policies, sectional crisis, and the road to the Civil War. As you continue, you will connect emancipation and Reconstruction to the long struggle over citizenship, segregation, labor, and industrialization, seeing how economic change and social policy shaped everyday life.

Progressive reform, overseas expansion, cultural conflict, and the shocks of the Great Depression and World War II reveal how government, markets, and communities adapt under pressure. The ebook then follows Cold War governance, suburbanization, and the rise of modern civil rights momentum, leading into landmark movements, Vietnam era controversies, and expanding rights debates. Later chapters clarify the shift toward conservatism and deregulation, the end of the Cold War, and the post 9/11 world of security policy, economic crisis, and polarization, culminating in contemporary America and the future of democratic institutions.

Start this free American history course today to build a confident timeline, strengthen historical thinking, and earn your free certificate as you learn.