Grand Theft Auto History Class Comes Before GTA 6

University of Tennessee students can take a Grand Theft Auto history class. The class is titled Grand Theft America: U.S. History Since 1980 through the GTA Video Games. Students can register for the class for the Spring 2026 semester, which begins January 20, 2026. History professor Tore Olsson came up with the course and will teach the class. Olsson is previously known for his American history class featuring the Red Dead Redemption series.

Will Students Need the Games?

The course does not require prior knowledge of the games, and buying the games is not necessary to succeed in the class. Olsson hopes that students’ passion for the games’ fictional world will inspire further learning about the history that shaped the games’ universe.

Even though the professor wanted to use Grand Theft Auto 6 as part of his course’s content, the game has been delayed until May 2026. Hopefully, he can use the game as content the next time he’s able to teach the course.

The Grand Theft Auto History class highlights the series’s parodical storytelling and detailed worlds. According to Hypebeast, students will explore themes of “consumerism, political corruption, the American Dream, and urban decay over the last 40 years.”

Grand Theft Auto History Professor’s Thoughts

In an interview with IGN, Olsson explains his idea behind the unorthodox history class. Olsson said, “Video games are great at conjuring fictional worlds, but they also impact players’ thinking about real-world times and places.”

He continues, “And just as Red Dead Redemption 2 has shaped folks’ perception of the nineteenth-century American West or Ghost of Tsushima has informed their vision of feudal Japan, millions of people around the globe imagine contemporary America through the lens of the Grand Theft Auto franchise.”

Olsson used the cities of Los Santos and Liberty City as examples of how players identified landmarks in New York and Los Angeles, thanks to hours spent playing GTA.

In his class, Olsson takes the series’s portrayal of the United States seriously, using its world as a framing device for a history class. His goal is that students will have a different perspective of the series as well as modern America, after taking the class.

Olsson is the author of the book Red Dead’s History. The audiobook version was narrated by Arthur Morgan’s voice actor Roger Clark.

My Opinion

Usually in college, pop culture references are usually discouraged. In classes such as African American Literature, however, a lot of stories from Black history often shaped popular culture. I think this class is a good way to engage students with American history, even if it’s a highly satirized version of the past 40 years.

I think the Grand Theft Auto history class is a step in the right direction, when it comes to using pop culture media as teaching tools. The class also makes learning accessible, which is important when you’re dealing with classes that people pay to study for.