Search | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

90,986 items

Essay

World War I

Jennifer D. Keene

Economics, Government and Civics, World History

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

War swept across Europe in the summer of 1914, igniting a global struggle that would eventually take nine million lives. World War I pitted the Allies (initially composed of Britain, France, Belgium, Serbia, and Russia, and eventually...

History Now Essay

A New Era of American Indian Autonomy

Ned Blackhawk

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

The American West is home to the majority of America’s Indian Nations, and, within the past generation, many of these groups have achieved unprecedented political and economic gains. Numerous reservation communities now manage...

Appears in:

9 | The American West Fall 2006

Essay

The Great Depression, the New Deal, and World War II in the American West

Elliott West

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

The Great Depression and World War II, far and away the worst economic calamity and the costliest foreign war in American history, profoundly affected every part of the United States. Changes in the West were especially obvious. From...

History Now Essay

Avast! How the US Built a Navy, Sent In the Marines, and Faced Down the Barbary Pirates

Christopher L. Miller

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

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

In October 1784, an American merchant vessel, the Betsey , was on a trade run from her home port of Boston to Tenerife in the Canary Islands when she was approached by an un-flagged vessel. Suddenly, "sabers grasped between their...

Appears in:

20 | High Crimes and Misdemeanors Summer 2009

History Now Essay

Lincoln’s Interpretation of the Civil War

Eric Foner

Government and Civics, Literature, Religion and Philosophy

10, 11, 12, 13+

On March 4, 1865, Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office for the second time. The setting itself reflected how much had changed in the past four years. When Lincoln delivered his First Inaugural Address, the new Capitol dome, which...

Appears in:

26 | New Interpretations of the Civil War Winter 2010

History Now Essay

Transcontinental Railroads: Compressing Time and Space

Richard White

Economics, Geography, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Many of our modern clichés about the impact of technology, particularly about the consequences of the Internet and telecommunications, first appeared as clichés about nineteenth-century railroads, particularly the transcontinental...

Appears in:

10 | Nineteenth Century Technology Winter 2006

Essay

The Age of Reagan

Gil Troy

The Reagan Revolution of the 1980s sought to change Americans’ attitudes toward their country, their government, and the world, as the United States emerged from the 1970s. Ronald Reagan entered the White House in January 1981...

History Now Essay

Race and the American Constitution: A Struggle toward National Ideals

James Oliver Horton

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

James O. Horton was the Benjamin Banneker Professor Emeritus of American Studies and History at George Washington University and historian emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. He edited,...

Appears in:

13 | The Constitution Fall 2007

57 | Black Voices in American Historiography Summer 2020

History Now Essay

The Filibuster King: The Strange Career of William Walker, the Most Dangerous International Criminal of the Nineteenth Century

T. J. Stiles

Economics, Geography, Government and Civics, World History

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

On November 8, 1855, on the central plaza of the Nicaraguan city of Granada, a line of riflemen shot General Ponciano Corral, the senior general of the Conservative government. Curiously, the members of the firing squad hailed from...

Appears in:

20 | High Crimes and Misdemeanors Summer 2009

History Now Essay

Cold War, Warm Hearth

Elaine Tyler May

In the summer of 1959, a young couple married and spent their honeymoon in a fallout shelter. Life magazine featured the "sheltered honeymoon" with a photograph of the duo smiling on their lawn, surrounded by dozens of canned goods...

Appears in:

27 | The Cold War Spring 2011

Essay

The Origins of Slavery

Ira Berlin

Geography, World History

5, 6, 7, 8

African American life in the United States has been framed by migrations, forced and free. A forced migration from Africa—the transatlantic slave trade—carried black people to the Americas. A second forced migration—the internal slave...

Essay

Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-1877

Eric Foner

Government and Civics, World History

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

In 1877, soon after retiring as president of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant, embarked with his wife on a two-year tour of the world. At almost every location, he was greeted as a hero. In England, the son of the Duke of...

History Now Essay

Female Trouble: Andrew Jackson versus the Ladies of Washington

Catherine Allgor

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Andrew Jackson was mad. It was February 1829, a wintry day in Washington, DC, and President-elect Jackson was in a fury about the public’s reaction to his Cabinet announcements. To be fair, Jackson was already angry when he arrived in...

Appears in:

22 | Andrew Jackson and His World Winter 2009

History Now Essay

The New Deal, Then and Now

Alan Brinkley

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

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Well before Barack Obama’s election in 2008, the New Deal was emerging as an instructive model for those trying to understand, and address, what is now known as the "worst financial crisis since the 1930s." But is the New Deal in fact...

Appears in:

19 | The Great Depression Spring 2009

Essay

America the Newcomer: Claiming the Louisiana Purchase

Elliott West

Geography

The Lewis and Clark expedition is rightly considered one of the great American stories. In May of 1804 Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set off by keelboat up the Missouri River with thirty-one men, the "Corps of Discovery," on an...

History Now Essay

A History of the Thanksgiving Holiday

Catherine Clinton

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Thanksgiving stands as one of the most American of holidays, an autumnal ritual fixed in the imagination as honoring the piety and perseverance of the nation’s earliest arrivals during colonial days. But what were the origins of this...

Appears in:

4 | American National Holidays Summer 2005

History Now Essay

Lincoln at Cooper Union

Harold Holzer

Art, Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

In March 1860, just a few weeks after returning home from his triumphant visit to New York to deliver his Cooper Union address, Lincoln went on the road yet again. He traveled up from Springfield, Illinois, to Chicago to complete...

Appears in:

6 | Lincoln Winter 2005

History Now Essay

The Years of Magical Thinking: Explaining the Salem Witchcraft Crisis

Mary Beth Norton

Geography, Government and Civics, Literature, Religion and Philosophy

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Most Americans’ knowledge of the seventeenth century comes from semi-mythical events such as the First Thanksgiving at Plymouth, Pocahontas purportedly saving Captain John Smith from execution in early Virginia, and Salem witchcraft....

Appears in:

20 | High Crimes and Misdemeanors Summer 2009

Essay

The Age of Jefferson and Madison

Peter S. Onuf

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison both played important roles in the era of the American Revolution. Jefferson was the lead author of the Declaration of Independence that launched the American experiment in republican government;...

History Now Essay

Anti-Slavery before the Revolutionary War

Sylvia R. Frey

Religion and Philosophy

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Anti-slavery is almost as old as slavery itself. Indeed it could easily be argued that the first enslaved person who jumped overboard or led an on-ship rebellion on the Middle Passage launched the anti-slavery movement. The modern...

Appears in:

5 | Abolition Fall 2005

History Now Essay

The Culture of Congress in the Age of Jackson

Joanne B. Freeman

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

During an 1841 debate in the House of Representatives, Edward Stanly of North Carolina said something derogatory about Virginian Henry Wise. A few minutes later, Wise walked over to Stanly’s seat. After some "earnest, and excited...

Appears in:

22 | Andrew Jackson and His World Winter 2009

News

Inside the Vault: Romeo Smith: Slave, Soldier, Freeman

Read a transcript of the certificate and examine an African American’s pay warrant from the Revolutionary War .

News

Inside the Vault: An African American Protests the Fugitive Slave Law, 1850

Read the transcript of Henry Weeden’s note and read an essay about abolition and antebellum reform .

News

Happy Birthday George Washington: On This Day, 1732

George Washington was born on February 22, 1732, in Virginia. To celebrate, enjoy a performance of "One Last Time" from the Broadway musical Hamilton , performed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Christopher Jackson, Sydney James Harcourt, and...

News

An "Autograph and Something More" from Frederick Douglass

Between 1855 and 1886, Franklin E. McNear collected autographs in his leather-bound, red autograph book . Among the eighty-four signatures are notable historic figures like P.T. Barnum, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Frederick Douglass ....

Site Search

90,986 items

World War I

A New Era of American Indian Autonomy

The Great Depression, the New Deal, and World War II in the American West

Avast! How the US Built a Navy, Sent In the Marines, and Faced Down the Barbary Pirates

Lincoln’s Interpretation of the Civil War

Transcontinental Railroads: Compressing Time and Space

The Age of Reagan

Race and the American Constitution: A Struggle toward National Ideals

The Filibuster King: The Strange Career of William Walker, the Most Dangerous International Criminal of the Nineteenth Century

Cold War, Warm Hearth

The Origins of Slavery

Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-1877

Female Trouble: Andrew Jackson versus the Ladies of Washington

The New Deal, Then and Now

America the Newcomer: Claiming the Louisiana Purchase

A History of the Thanksgiving Holiday

Lincoln at Cooper Union

The Years of Magical Thinking: Explaining the Salem Witchcraft Crisis

The Age of Jefferson and Madison

Anti-Slavery before the Revolutionary War

The Culture of Congress in the Age of Jackson

Inside the Vault: Romeo Smith: Slave, Soldier, Freeman

Inside the Vault: An African American Protests the Fugitive Slave Law, 1850

Happy Birthday George Washington: On This Day, 1732

An "Autograph and Something More" from Frederick Douglass

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