5 YouTube channels to illustrate history programmes

Last updated on 12 May 2026

You can find everything on the famous YouTube video hosting platform. History fans, but also teachers, will find many channels and video clips to satisfy their passion or to illustrate their lessons. Provided of course to choose them carefully. Here are five highly recommendable YouTube channels on history.

You will find many video clips that will illustrate or complement the history programmes, particularly for middle and high schools.

Herodotus. The YouTube channel of the famous online media dedicated to history

Herodotus invested very early in the YouTube platform and has more than 100,000 subscribers. You will find there hundreds of video clips on history lasts an average of 10 minutes. The hosts of this channel had the good idea to add a link under each video that leads to the full-text transcript of each video. Classic and serious. Maybe a little too much.

 

The school book. Video clips to complement the publisher’s history books

The e-book publisher offers a YouTube channel in which we find many videos that complement the digital manuals. In particular, the video clips are well suited to the college and are short, no longer than three minutes, and serve as a summary of what needs to be learned from a chapter in the programme. The school book has chosen an original form with real animations created for the occasion. The result is modern and dynamic.

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The underside of the cards. Arte deciphers the stakes of our contemporary world through maps

The Arte channel is a veritable Ali Baba cavern for those seeking quality educational resources. We talked here aboutEduc’Arte A few weeks ago. Another example: the YouTube channel dedicated to the History of the programme ‘Le sous des cartes’. Here you will find a daily 3-minute video capsule dedicated to a highlight of international news, but also much longer topics from the weekly magazine broadcast on the channel. This declination on YouTube displays the beautiful score of 500,000 subscribers. A deserved success for an original and very high quality realization.

Imineo. A YouTube channel that addresses history through great documentaries

Imineo is another Quality historical resource on YouTube. With over 1.5 million subscribers, Imineo is one of the most watched and followed YouTube History channels. Here we have the great documentaries that allow us to go further in the exploration of a historical period. Not all the videos are suitable for history programmes, but there are also some real treasures. Imineo is rather suitable for high school students or students.

Nota Bonus. When the new generation of ‘Youtubers’ take over history

Nota Bene is the best known of all Youtubers who talk about history And yet there are many of them. Benjamin Brillaud, its creator, brings together several hundred thousand subscribers. And yet the star animator is not a history teacher even though he has been studying history for a few months. Passionate rather than scholarly, the capsules produced are none the less interesting. Nota Bene has been able to surround herself with the right specialists to validate her content. He has also been able to capture all the codes of successful YouTube channels acclaimed by young people with a dynamic and careful production, humor and a quirky tone.

These are the five YouTube channels that talk about history. Do you have any other YouTube resources to recommend?  Do so in the comments to allow us to enrich this first list.