Track A — the story, read straight through
The whole arc in seven Movements, told in order, with primary voices and a place to reflect. Closer to a good long book than a course — go at your own pace, for the pleasure of it.
1 · Start with the question. Each Movement opens with one big question. Just hold it while you read.
2 · Read, watch, listen close. A few chapters, a stretch of video, then the real voices of people who were there.
3 · Bring it home. A short reflection that ties it to the world you live in now — and to your own history.
There’s no grade here and no clock. Read the Orientation first if you like, then take the Movements one at a time. Nobody is tracking you, and there’s nothing to feel behind on.
Start here
A Letter Before You Begin
the Orientation · what this summer is, and what it isn’t
Why we’re doing this the long way, how a Movement works, and why your own history belongs right next to the American one. Read this first.
Movement OneTwo Worlds Collide
before 1492 – about 1700
Who was already here, who was brought here in chains, and the kinds of worlds that got built on top of both.
Movement TwoRevolution and the Problem of Power
about 1750 – 1791
Thirteen colonies overthrow a king, nearly fall apart, then build a machine designed so no king can ever rise again. Half your civics lives here.
Movement ThreeThe Machine and Its Fault Line
1791 – 1850
The new republic starts running — and discovers it cannot keep the bargain it was built on.
Movement FourThe House Divides
1850 – 1865
The contradiction the founders left unsettled, finally settled by war.
Movement FiveThe Second Founding and Its Betrayal
1865 – 1900
Slavery ends, three amendments remake the Constitution — and then the country rolls much of it back. The 14th Amendment, the hinge of nearly all modern American law, is born here.
Movement SixThe Long Struggle for the Real Thing
1900 – 1968
Workers, women, and Black Americans force the gap between the promise and the practice to narrow — partway, and at great cost.
Movement SevenThe Unfinished Present
1968 – now
How it all actually works today, what’s still broken, and where you come in.
Bring your own history. If you grew up outside the United States — in Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Trinidad, anywhere — you carry a story of colonization, slavery, emancipation, and independence that is in many ways longer than this one. Set your country’s story right next to ours as you read. It’s not a distraction. It’s the lens that makes the American story sharper.
Would you rather watch than read? Track B tells the same story as the full Khan Academy course, in order, with our notes in the margins. Same history, different door in. →
Go to Track B