10 YouTube Channels That Rock! - History Gal

10 YouTube Channels That Rock!

By History Gal
I am slightly obsessed with finding quality YouTube videos for Middle and High School Social Studies classes. Let's face it, there are A LOT of bad YouTube videos out there and it can be painful to find a video that is entertaining, yet educational.

So here's my list of 10 YouTube Channels you should check out, bookmark, and maybe even subscribe.



1. Crash Course - There's a video for just about every topic in US History, World History, Economics, Government, and even Psychology. They are entertaining and stuffed full with information about each topic. The videos are usually between 10-15 minutes long.

2. Mr. Betts Class - He has music videos for US and World History that are completely goofy, but with great content and students LOVE them!

3. Laughing Historically - Because who wouldn't want Third Parties explained by Star Wars?! Only venture here if you have some time on you hands because there are so many awesome videos here, you'll find yourself binge-watching them all!

4. Disney The American Presidents - So far, they have videos for George Washington, John Adams, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard Nixon. Each run a little over 3 minutes long and your students will much rather watch these than that *cough* other president video you were going to show.

5. Vlog Brothers - Another great channel by John and Hank Green (yes, the Crash Course guys and how did I not connect that the Crash Course John Green is the same Fault in Our Stars John Green?! Anyway, I digress...). I am loving their current How to Vote in Every State series and their videos that explain complicated current events.

*Hopefully, you won't mind, but I've found more YouTube Channels that rock!*

6. Shmoop - Despite the weird name, Shmoop has lots of really fun and entertaining videos that you will LOVE to use in your class. In fact, I just had my students watch Shay's Rebellion by Shmoop :) Check out their playlists to see what you can use in your class!

7.  John D. Ruddy - Lots of great videos like World War II in 7 Minutes and French Revolution in 9 Minutes that have fun illustrations and good content.

8. WWI Uncut on BBC -  My inner history nerd is already trying to figure out how many of these videos I can fit into my World War I unit. Here are just a few of my favorites (and there are so many more that you should check out!): Why Trenches?, Surviving the U-Boats, Infections, and Dogfights.

9. Epic History TV -  Lots of videos for World History like the Battle of Waterloo and The Russian Revolution and U.S. History teachers will love their 44 Presidents in 150 Seconds video!

10. Hip Hughes - Keith Hughes has a video for just about any topic you might need for U.S. History and his World History video collection keeps growing!

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5 comments

  1. Great site, thank you for the freebies. Have you tried BBC Teach on Youtube and Crash Course Junior- I use it in Middle school in Norway where most of my students speak several languages and sometimes the Crash course goes a wee bit too fast.

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    1. I LOVE the BBC and BBC Teach - their videos are not always available for those of us in the U.S. which always makes me so sad! I'll have to check out Crash Course Junior :)

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  2. Laughing historically is HIGHLY politicized. This would be worth mentioning to teachers.

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  3. Thanks for the mention! I definitely recommend that teachers preview anything they'd want to show to their students first. I do like to expose students to bias in sources and it's great to be able to have students analyze videos for bias.

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    1. Fair point! The videos I watched were so saturated with bias I'd definitely want to build students up to working with videos of this level of bias. But its true, we can't expect students to encounter only the unbiased resources. :)

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