Search | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

90,976 items

History Now Essay

Technology of the 1800s

Brent D. Glass

Government and Civics, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

In his classic study, Democracy in America (1835–1840), Alexis de Tocqueville titled one of his chapters "Why the Americans are more Addicted to Practical rather than Theoretical Science." He observed that the political and social...

Appears in:

10 | Nineteenth Century Technology Winter 2006

History Now Essay

Conflict and Commerce: The Rise and Fall of New Netherland

Simon Middleton

Economics, World History

8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

In September 1609, when Henry Hudson guided his ship, De Halve Maen , through the narrows dividing present-day Staten and Long Islands, he was not the first European navigator to sail into what we know today as New York Bay. The...

Appears in:

12 | The Age Of Exploration Summer 2007

History Now Essay

The Importance of Muhammad Ali

Thomas Hauser

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., as Muhammad Ali was once known, was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on January 17, 1942—a time when blacks were the servant class in Louisville. They held jobs such as tending the backstretch at Churchill...

Appears in:

23 | Turning Points in American Sports Spring 2010

History Now Essay

Winning the Vote: A History of Voting Rights

Steven Mintz

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Voting Rights on the Eve of the Revolution The basic principle that governed voting in colonial America was that voters should have a "stake in society." Leading colonists associated democracy with disorder and mob rule, and believed...

Appears in:

1 | Elections Fall 2004

Essay

Jim Crow and the Great Migration

Jonathan Holloway

In September 1895, Booker T. Washington, the head of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, stepped to the podium at the Atlanta Cotton States Exposition and implored white employers to "cast down your bucket where you are" and hire...

Essay

The Road to Revolution

T. H. Breen

Government and Civics, World History

5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

The Peace of Paris (February 10, 1763) marked a glorious moment in the history of the British Empire. France surrendered Canada, ending more than a century of warfare on the northern frontier. At the time, no one seriously thought...

Essay

Creating a New Government

Gordon S. Wood

Government and Civics

When on July 4, 1776, Americans declared independence from the monarchy of Great Britain, they were faced with the formidable task of creating new republican governments. Their immediate focus was not on any central authority but on...

Essay

The Gilded Age

T. Jackson Lears

When I was a college student in the late 1960s, the most popular US history courses were the ones that covered the Gilded Age. They promised to illuminate the origins of urgent contemporary problems. Their canvas was broad and filled...

History Now Essay

Indian Slavery in the Americas

Alan Gallay

Economics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

The story of European colonialism in the Americas and its victimization of Africans and Indians follows a central paradigm in most textbooks. The African "role" encompasses the transportation, exploitation, and suffering of many...

Appears in:

25 | Three Worlds Meet Fall 2010

History Now Essay

The Slave Narratives: A Genre and a Source

David W. Blight

Economics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

The autobiographies of ex-slaves in America are the foundation of an African American literary tradition, as well as unique glimpses into the souls of slaves themselves. The roughly sixty-five to seventy slave narratives published in...

Appears in:

2 | Primary Sources on Slavery Winter 2004

History Now Essay

The Origins and Legacy of the Pennsylvania Quakers

Barry Levy

Government and Civics, Religion and Philosophy

Enthusiastic religious conviction among rustic Quakers contributed much to what seems civilized and refined about American culture and society. Although the movement later attracted intellectual and genteel members, Quakerism began as...

Appears in:

29 | Religion in the Colonial World Fall 2011

History Now Essay

Abraham Lincoln and Jacksonian Democracy

Sean Wilentz

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Abraham Lincoln was, for most of his political career, a highly partisan Whig. As long as the Whig Party existed, he never supported the candidate of another party. Until the late 1850s, his chief political heroes were Whigs, above...

Appears in:

18 | Abraham Lincoln in His Time and Ours Winter 2008

History Now Essay

Motor City: The Story of Detroit

Thomas J. Sugrue

Economics, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

"You can see here, as it is impossible to do in a more varied and complex city, the whole structure of an industrial society." So wrote essayist Edmund Wilson, reporting on a visit to the Motor City in the 1930s. As the capital of...

Appears in:

11 | American Cities Spring 2007

History Now Essay

Sandra Day O’Connor: A Life of Action

Meryl Justin Chertoff

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Sandra Day O’Connor still has a lot of work to do. The first woman on the United States Supreme Court who recently described herself as "a retired cowgirl" continues to break new ground as an advocate for judicial independence and...

Appears in:

15 | The Supreme Court Spring 2008

History Now Essay

Change and Crisis: North America on the Eve of the European Invasion

Christopher L. Miller

Geography, Government and Civics, Religion and Philosophy

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

It was around the year 1450. A young man was living alone in the dense forest somewhere southeast of Lake Ontario because there was not enough food in his home village. Many like him were doing the same and some, perhaps even this...

Appears in:

25 | Three Worlds Meet Fall 2010

History Now Essay

The Hundred Days and Beyond: What Did the New Deal Accomplish?

Anthony J. Badger

Economics, Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

There wasn’t anybody in that entire Brains Trust apparently that had given any thought—they had absolutely no plans—or any real study to the problem created by this banking situation. —Walter Wyatt, Federal Reserve official, amazed at...

Appears in:

19 | The Great Depression Spring 2009

History Now Essay

Why Sports History Is American History

Mark Naison

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

In the classroom, examples from sports can explain key events in American history and help explore how people in American society have grappled with racial, ethnic, and regional differences in our very diverse nation. Whether it is...

Appears in:

23 | Turning Points in American Sports Spring 2010

Essay

The New Deal

Thomas Kessner

Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s protean presidency from 1933 to 1945 (the longest term of leadership in this nation’s history) has provoked many debates about the man and his policies. For some he is the brilliant tactician who wrestled...

History Now Essay

Graft and Oil: How Teapot Dome Became the Greatest Political Scandal of Its Time

Robert W. Cherny

Economics, Government and Civics, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

In the 1920s, Teapot Dome became synonymous with government corruption and the scandals arising out of the administration of President Warren G. Harding. Since then, it has sometimes been used to symbolize the power and influence of...

Appears in:

20 | High Crimes and Misdemeanors Summer 2009

Essay

Religion and Eighteenth-Century Revivalism

Jon Butler

Religion and Philosophy

Revivals and revivalists seem endemic to the broad sweep of American history—Billy Graham’s 1957 "crusade" appearance at New York City’s Yankee Stadium; Aimee Semple McPherson’s theatrical preaching and healing at her Angeles Temple...

Essay

The Politics of Reform

Julie Des Jardins

At the turn of the twentieth century there was a resurging impulse toward social and political reform. In some ways it continued tendencies already apparent since the industrial revolution of the early nineteenth century, in which...

History Now Essay

Ronald Reagan and the End of the Cold War: The Debate Continues

Michael Cox

World History

For a British professor with more than a passing interest in US foreign policy and the role of the United States in ending the Cold War, it is indeed fascinating to observe how deeply divided opinion still remains over the part played...

Appears in:

27 | The Cold War Spring 2011

History Now Essay

Abolition and Antebellum Reform

Ronald G. Walters

Government and Civics, Religion and Philosophy

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

When the Boston abolitionist Thomas Wentworth Higginson looked back on the years before the Civil War, he wrote, "there prevailed then a phrase, ‘the Sisterhood of Reforms.’" He had in mind "a variety of social and psychological...

Appears in:

5 | Abolition Fall 2005

History Now Essay

The Rise of an American Institution: The Stock Market

Brian Murphy

Economics, Government and Civics, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

On nearly every workday in the United States, if you watch cable news or browse an Internet news site at 9:30 in the morning and 4:00 in the afternoon (Eastern Time), you’ll probably see two utterly unremarkable events covered live....

Appears in:

24 | Shaping the American Economy Summer 2010

Essay

The Great Depression

David M. Kennedy

Economics, Government and Civics, World History

Herbert Hoover got many things wrong about the great economic calamity that destroyed his presidency and his historical reputation, but he got one fundamental thing right. Much legend to the contrary, the Great Depression was not...

Site Search

90,976 items

Technology of the 1800s

Conflict and Commerce: The Rise and Fall of New Netherland

The Importance of Muhammad Ali

Winning the Vote: A History of Voting Rights

Jim Crow and the Great Migration

The Road to Revolution

Creating a New Government

The Gilded Age

Indian Slavery in the Americas

The Slave Narratives: A Genre and a Source

The Origins and Legacy of the Pennsylvania Quakers

Abraham Lincoln and Jacksonian Democracy

Motor City: The Story of Detroit

Sandra Day O’Connor: A Life of Action

Change and Crisis: North America on the Eve of the European Invasion

The Hundred Days and Beyond: What Did the New Deal Accomplish?

Why Sports History Is American History

The New Deal

Graft and Oil: How Teapot Dome Became the Greatest Political Scandal of Its Time

Religion and Eighteenth-Century Revivalism

The Politics of Reform

Ronald Reagan and the End of the Cold War: The Debate Continues

Abolition and Antebellum Reform

The Rise of an American Institution: The Stock Market

The Great Depression

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