This anthology is a curated collection of openly licensed primary texts, organized thematically, designed to be used as a reader in English composition courses. Includes personal essays, literature, video and audio files, Web writings, and long-form journalism, along with customizable assignments and instructor resources. This anthology was initially curated by Lumen Learning using materials from a variety of open sources.

"Romanticism and myth surround United States history in contemporary popular culture. This course encourages students to develop a critical understanding of the history of our nation. This course will guide students through a wealth of primary sources, and view videos tied to clear learning objectives designed to improve their critical thinking skills. Sample assignments are included. Key topics include early globalization and European exploration, colonial societies, the English Empire, America’s War for Independence, the creation of the American Republic, the industrial transformation, Jacksonian democracy, westward expansion, “King” Cotton and idealism in the antebellum South, the troubled 1850s, and the Civil War to Reconstruction.

This course was developed using the OpenStax US History text with the inclusion of a primary source reader from American Yawp. The course also includes additional videos, images, and enhancements, as well as a quiz bank provided by Lumen Learning. Assignments were contributed by Thomas deMayo and Chris Thomas from Reynolds Community College."

The authors of American Yawp begin their effort with a pertinent quote from Walt Whitman. This course takes an approach to history that fosters a method of critical thought and a rigorous questioning of the history of the United States. Key topics include the characteristics and legends of the New World, imperial European cultures and their clashes, British North America, colonial society, the American Revolution and the new nation, the early American Republic, the market revolution, the challenges of democracy in America, religion and political reform, the old south, the consequences of Manifest Destiny, sectionalism, the Civil War, and Reconstruction.

This course comes from The American Yawp, a free, collaboratively-built textbook curated by Joseph Locke & Ben Wright. It also includes the American Yawp Reader and a handful of other primary resources identified by various faculty across the country. Other minor adaptations and additions have been provided by Lumen Learning.

This Lumen Learning Waymaker U.S. History course aims to help students think critically about history and use historical thinking skills to describe, compare, contextualize, and construct historical arguments about major events in American history through 1877, from the European settling of the Americas to the Reconstruction Era.

“History is our ongoing conversation with the past.” So say the authors of American Yawp. This course takes an approach to history that fosters a method of critical thought and a rigorous questioning of the history of the United States. Key topics include Reconstruction, Industrial America, conquering the West, capital and labor, the American empire, the progressive era, World War I and its aftermath, the 1920s, the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, post-war affluence, the 1960s, cultural and societal conflicts, the rise of the right and conservatism, and the recent past from 1990 to the Great Recession. This course is based on the collaborative, open, online text entitled American Yawp, including the American Yawp Primary Source Reader. The course also includes ancillary material from OpenStax US History as well as videos, images, quizzes, and other enhancements from various sources. Assignments were contributed by Thomas deMayo and Chris Thomas from Reynolds Community College. This course was developed using the OpenStax US History text with the inclusion of a primary source reader from American Yawp. The course also includes additional videos, images, and enhancements, as well as a quiz bank provided by Lumen Learning. Assignments were contributed by Thomas deMayo and Chris Thomas from Reynolds Community College.

What does it mean to be informed? To know our history? This course encourages students to develop a critical understanding of the history of our nation. United States History II covers the chronological history of the United States from Reconstruction through the beginning of the twenty-first century and introduces key forces and major developments that together form the US experience, providing a balanced approach that considers the people, events, and ideas that have shaped the United States from both the top down (politics, economics, diplomacy) and bottom up (eyewitness accounts, lived experience), with particular attention paid to issues of race, class, and gender.

This text comes almost entirely from OpenStax U.S. History, but is supplemented with primary source readings from The American Yawp Reader. There are other minor additions and enhancements made by Lumen Learning or other faculty.

Abstract In some educational settings, the cost of textbooks approaches or even
exceeds the cost of tuition. Given limited resources, it is important to better
understand the impacts of free open educational resources (OER) on student outcomes. Utilizing digital resources such as OER can substantially reduce costs for
students. The purpose of this study was to analyze whether the adoption of no-cost
open digital textbooks significantly predicted students’ completion of courses, class
achievement, and enrollment intensity during and after semesters in which OER
were used. This study utilized a quantitative quasi-experimental design with
propensity-score matched groups to examine differences in outcomes between
students that used OER and those who did not. The demographics of the initial
sample of 16,727 included 4909 students in the treatment condition with a pool of
11,818 in the control condition. There were statistically significant differences
between groups, with most favoring students utilizing OER