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Michigan Teacher Matthew Vriesman Named 2023 National History Teacher of the Year

NEW YORK, NY (September 28, 2023) —The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is pleased to announce that Matthew Vriesman, a high school history teacher in Kentwood, Michigan, has been named the 2023 National History Teacher of...

Essay

Civil Dialogue

On Civil Dialogue By Keidrick Roy The idea of “civil dialogue” can lead to heated debates. What does it mean to be “civil”? What counts as “dialogue”? Who gets to decide? To address these questions, I propose a definition of...

Essay

Federalism

Federalism By Kermit Roosevelt Federalism is probably the most distinctive feature of the American constitutional system. Eighteenth-century political thinkers generally believed that ultimate power had to be given to one...

Essay

Jury System

The Jury System By Anna Law The American jury system in which citizens participate in the criminal justice system is an essential element of democracy. Democracy entails the rule of the many and not the rule of the few....

Essay

Rule of Law

Rule of Law By Ajay K. Mehrotra Emblazoned above the United States Supreme Court building is the famous phrase “Equal Justice Under the Law.” These words capture the essential meaning of the phrase “Rule of Law,” which...

Essay

Separation of Powers

Three Branches of Government By Geraldo Cadava The US Constitution was ratified by the individual states in 1787 and 1788. After ratification, the Confederation Congress determined that the Constitution would go into effect...

Essay

Voting Rights

Voting Rights By Liette Gidlow Who has the right to vote in the United States? And when and why has the answer to that question changed over time? Americans have long been captivated by stories that describe the United...

Video: Book Breaks

Brenda Stevenson - "What Sorrows Labour in My Parent's Breast? A History of the Enslaved Black Family"

Government and Civics, Literature

Brenda E. Stevenson holds the Hillary Rodham Clinton Chair in Women’s History at St. John’s College, Oxford University and the Nickoll Family Endowed Chair in the Department of History at the University of California, Los Angeles ...

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2023 George Washington Prize Awarded to Maurizio Valsania

New York, NY, September 29, 2023 — Maurizio Valsania has been awarded the 2023 George Washington Prize for his book First Among Men: George Washington and the Myth of American Masculinity (Johns Hopkins University Press). One of the...

History Now Issue

The Role of Spain in the American Revolution

#68 Fall 2023

News

Maurizio Valsania Wins the 2023 George Washington Prize

Maurizio Valsania has been awarded the 2023 George Washington Prize for his book First Among Men: George Washington and the Myth of American Masculinity (Johns Hopkins University Press). One of the nation’s largest and most...

Video: Book Breaks

Jon Meacham - "And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle"

Government and Civics

Jon Meacham is a historian and Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer. Order And There Was Light at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every purchase through the link provided. Thank you for supporting...

History Now Essay

Diego de Gardoqui and the Beginnings of Spanish-American Diplomacy

Elisa Vargas

Born into a prominent Basque family on November 12, 1735, in the province of Vizcaya, Spain, Diego de Gardoqui was a treasured son of Don José Ignacio Gardoqui y Azpegorta and his wife Maria Simona. Groomed to be a banker, he was sent...

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68 | The Role of Spain in the American Revolution Fall 2023

History Now Essay

Benjamin Franklin, Spain, and the Independence of the United States

Thomas E. Chávez

On November 29, 1775, more than six months before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Congress’s Secret Committee of Correspondence gave instructions to Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee to travel to Paris to...

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68 | The Role of Spain in the American Revolution Fall 2023

History Now Essay

The Spanish Siege of Pensacola

Kathleen DuVal

In 1779, the king of Spain declared war on Britain. Like his ally the king of France, he decided to fight his British enemies while they were busy trying to defeat the American Revolution. As soon as he declared war, the Mississippi...

Appears in:

68 | The Role of Spain in the American Revolution Fall 2023

History Now Essay

The Declaration of Independence: America’s Call to Arms to Spain and France

Larrie D. Ferreiro

Early in the throes of the American Revolution in the summer of 1776, Thomas Jefferson was wrestling with a document to King Carlos III of Spain and King Louis XVI of France that would bring much-needed help to the embattled American...

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68 | The Role of Spain in the American Revolution Fall 2023

Video: Inside The Vault

Inside the Vault: The Reynolds Pamphlet

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

What led Alexander Hamilton to publish the infamous Reynolds Pamphlet (entitled Observations on Certain Documents . . . ) in which he confessed to an extramarital affair? What impact did it have on him, his family, and his career?...

History Now Essay

Spain’s Black Militias in the American Revolution

Jane Landers

In 1775, Virginia’s governor, John Murray, Earl of Dunmore, issued a proclamation offering liberty to all enslaved Blacks who would join Great Britain’s military forces and defeat the rebellious Americans fighting for their...

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68 | The Role of Spain in the American Revolution Fall 2023

History Now Essay

Felicitas St. Maxent, Wife of Bernardo de Gálvez: From French New Orleans Belle to Exiled Spanish Dowager Countess

Gonzalo M. Quintero Saravia

When Marie-Felicité Saint-Maxent La Roche was born in New Orleans on December 27, 1755, her future looked easy to predict: a pampered childhood, an arranged early marriage to the scion of a wealthy family, the motherhood of many...

Appears in:

68 | The Role of Spain in the American Revolution Fall 2023

History Now Essay

From the Editor

Carol Berkin

Most Americans are familiar with the role leading Frenchmen played in the story of the American Revolution. They admire the young and idealistic Marquis de Lafayette, scorn the wily peace treaty negotiator the Comte de Vergennes, and...

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68 | The Role of Spain in the American Revolution Fall 2023

Video: Book Breaks

Drew Gilpin Faust - "Necessary Trouble: Growing Up at Midcentury"

Literature

Drew Gilpin Faust is president emerita of Harvard University and the Arthur Kingsley Porter University Professor at Harvard. Order Necessary Trouble at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every...

Special Topics

United States Citizenship Exam - Full Test

Special Topics

Citizenship Exam - Ten Questions

Basic Page

American Colonies: A Continental History

American Colonies: A Continental History Led by : Prof. Alan Taylor (University of Virginia) Course Number : AMHI 605 Semesters : Spring 2022, Spring 2024 Image: Matthew Seutter, Recens Edita totius Novi Belgii [New Netherland-New York] , Augsburg,...

Basic Page

The American Revolution

The American Revolution Led by : Prof. Denver Brunsman (George Washington University) Course Number : AMHI 621 Semesters : Fall 2016, Spring 2019, Summer 2020, Summer 2022, Spring 2024 Image: The British Surrendering Their Arms to Gen: Washington...

Site Search

90,988 items

Michigan Teacher Matthew Vriesman Named 2023 National History Teacher of the Year

Civil Dialogue

Federalism

Jury System

Rule of Law

Separation of Powers

Voting Rights

Brenda Stevenson - "What Sorrows Labour in My Parent's Breast? A History of the Enslaved Black Family"

2023 George Washington Prize Awarded to Maurizio Valsania

The Role of Spain in the American Revolution

Maurizio Valsania Wins the 2023 George Washington Prize

Jon Meacham - "And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle"

Diego de Gardoqui and the Beginnings of Spanish-American Diplomacy

Benjamin Franklin, Spain, and the Independence of the United States

The Spanish Siege of Pensacola

The Declaration of Independence: America’s Call to Arms to Spain and France

Inside the Vault: The Reynolds Pamphlet

Spain’s Black Militias in the American Revolution

Felicitas St. Maxent, Wife of Bernardo de Gálvez: From French New Orleans Belle to Exiled Spanish Dowager Countess

From the Editor

Drew Gilpin Faust - "Necessary Trouble: Growing Up at Midcentury"

United States Citizenship Exam - Full Test

Citizenship Exam - Ten Questions

American Colonies: A Continental History

The American Revolution

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