American History & Civics Ladder · Free, age 5 to law school
Climb from the Liberty Bell to constitutional law
Learn the American story in full, the proud chapters and the hard ones, from the first peoples to the end of the twentieth century. Then learn how the government works: the Constitution clause by clause, Congress, the president and the courts, your rights, and how elections run. Climb on to how lawyers read cases and to the constitutional law taught in law school, with every case told by its facts, its question, its holding and the reasoning on each side. Short lessons, primary sources, maps and timelines, and practice that checks your answers. No sign-up, nothing to pay.
The ladder
Each rung is a full course. Start where you are; topics from earlier rungs come back when you need them.
- College
- Constitutional Law II: RightsCollege · 50 topics You are here
- Constitutional Law I: StructureCollege · 44 topics You are here
- Introduction to Law and Legal ReasoningCollege · 42 topics You are here
- High school
- Civics and GovernmentGrade 9–12 · 75 topics You are here
- U.S. History II: 1865 to 2000Grade 8–12 · 54 topics You are here
- U.S. History I: Beginnings to 1877Grade 8–11 · 66 topics You are here
- Elementary
- American History for Young LearnersGrade K–3 · 44 topics You are here
How the American History & Civics Ladder works
- Find your rung. A short check, at most 30 questions, skips what you already know and finds your starting point.
- Learn from first principles. Each topic is one small idea. The lesson shows why it works, then walks through worked examples one step at a time.
- Master it before moving on. Three right answers, the last two in a row, pass a topic. If a topic gets hard, we point you to the skill underneath it.
- Review, spaced out. Passed topics come back after 1 day, then 3, 7, 16 days and longer, for two quick problems each. Harder topics that use an older one count as practice for it.
- Mix it up. Reviews and checkpoint quizzes mix problems from different topics, so you learn to tell which method a problem needs.
- Earn XP. About one point per minute of focused work. Set a daily goal and keep your streak going.
- One climb across subjects. Every ladder shares your XP, streak and reviews. When a topic needs a skill from another ladder, such as the algebra behind a formula, that skill comes first, labeled with its ladder.
Why these steps: the U.S. Institute of Education Sciences practice guide Organizing Instruction and Study to Improve Student Learning (Pashler and others, NCER 2007-2004) recommends spacing reviews out over time, alternating worked examples with problems students solve on their own, pairing pictures with words, and using quizzes to bring key content back. The American History & Civics Ladder is built around those ideas.
More on Teddy Rook Book
- Citizenship Test PracticeThe official USCIS civics questions, 2025 and 2008, with cards and a mock interview
- The Federalist PapersAll 85 essays by Publius, with a reader's guide
- The Anti-Federalist PapersBrutus, the Federal Farmer and the other critics of the Constitution
- The Ratification DebateFederalist and Anti-Federalist essays paired, and how each state ratified
- DebateArgue both sides of a resolution, with formats, a timer and a flow sheet
- The Harvard ClassicsVolume 43, American Historical Documents, in the daily readings
- TimelineThe site timeline of the ancient world, where the story of self-government begins
- Economics LadderMarkets, money and policy, with each school of thought told fairly
- Logic LadderArguments, fallacies and proofs: the reasoning lawyers and judges use
The other ladders
- Math LadderFrom counting in Kindergarten to calculus, linear algebra and differential equations. 27 courses.
- Physics LadderMotion, forces and energy, then fluids, heat, electricity, light, atoms and the stars, from grade 8 to college. 8 courses.
- Chemistry LadderAtoms, bonds, moles and reactions, from high school chemistry through a full year of general chemistry. 3 courses.
- Economics LadderHow people, firms and whole economies choose: microeconomics, macroeconomics and calculus-based micro. 3 courses.
- Earth & Space LadderRocks, plates and volcanoes, oceans, weather and climate, and Earth's place among the planets and stars. 3 courses.
- Logic LadderClear thinking, from arguments and fallacies to syllogisms, truth tables and formal proofs, grade 7 to college. 3 courses.
- Etiquette LadderManners as kindness made into habits: please and thank you, the table, conversation, notes and hard moments, age 4 to adult. 3 courses.
- Egyptology LadderAncient Egypt from the Nile and the pyramids to reading hieroglyphs: history, Middle Egyptian, religion and art, and archaeology, age 8 to college. 6 courses.
- Ancient Scripts LadderHow ancient scripts work and how they were read again, beginning with Linear A and Linear B of the Bronze Age Aegean, high school to college. 1 courses.
- Vocabulary LadderOne thousand advanced words, each with a picture and a memory hook, plus the Greek and Latin roots that unlock them, grade 6 to adult. 2 courses.
- Biology LadderLiving things from seeds and tadpoles to cells, genes, evolution and ecosystems, age 5 through AP Biology and college. 4 courses.
- Writing & Grammar LadderFrom a first sentence to the persuasive essay: grammar and diagramming, usage and punctuation, paragraphs and essays, sources and citations, and rhetoric, age 6 to college. 6 courses.
All the ladders share one progress: XP, your streak and your reviews.
Your progress is saved in this browser
No account needed. To move to another device, or to keep a backup, copy your save code and paste it in on the other device.
See your progress · The site's My Progress page backs up everything at once.