Many essays pertaining to Theodore Roosevelt and his times have been published on the Gilder Lehrman Institute website and in History Now, the online journal of the Gilder Lehrman Institute. Selected essays are available here, to provide historical perspective for teachers, students, and general readers.
The first two essays are open to everyone for free. The rest of the essays are available by subscription to History Resources (free for K–12 teachers and students in the free Gilder Lehrman Affiliate School Program; to join visit this page: Affiliate School Program).
- “The Square Deal: Theodore Roosevelt and the Themes of Progressive Reform” by Kirsten Swift, History Now 17 (Fall 2008): Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Era
An overview of progressivism, focusing on the historical context for the rise of this diffuse and complex movement - “The United States and the Caribbean, 1877–1920” by Jason Colby
A discussion of the change in the relationship between the United States and the Caribbean region that was closely tied to the transformation of the United States to an industrial and imperial power
- “The Progressive Era to the New Era, 1900-1929” by Daniel T. Rodgers
- “Theodore Roosevelt: The Making of a Progressive Reformer” by Kathleen Dalton, History Now 17 (Fall 2008): Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Era
- “‘The Politics of the Future Are Social Politics‘: Progressivism in International Perspective” by Thomas Bender, History Now 17 (Fall 2008): Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Era
- “The Spectacles of 1912” by Patricia O’Toole, History Now 17 (Fall 2008): Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Era
- “The Jungle and the Progressive Era” by Robert W. Cherny, History Now 16 (Summer 2008): Books That Changed History
A close look at the muckraking journalism of the Progressive era and at the conditions in factories, government, and cities - “The Transnational Nature of the Progressive Era” by Daniel T. Rodgers, History Now 30 (Winter 2012): American Reform Movements
An exploration of how American solutions to the problems of urbanization, immigration, and environmental protection were often modeled on various European efforts to improve conditions in their own countries - “Empire Building” by Robert W. Cherny
- “The Politics of Reform“ by Julie Des Jardins
- “The Dillingham Commission and the ‘Immigration Question,’ 1907−1921” by Robert Zeidel, History Now 52 (Fall 2018): The History of US Immigration Laws
A discussion of the 1917 Literacy Test Act and the 1921 Quota Act and the changing context for immigration produced by industrialization and the rise in xenophobia