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Spotlight on: Primary Source

Rules for discharging disabled veterans, 1919

Government and Civics

When World War I ended in 1918 more than 4.6 million men returned to the United States from war. The American people and the US government were unprepared to reintegrate and care for the men who returned with physical injuries and...

Spotlight on: Primary Source

Emma Goldman on the restriction of civil liberties, 1919

Government and Civics

7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Emma Goldman was born to a Jewish family in Kovno, Russia (present-day Lithuania). In 1885, at the age of sixteen, she emigrated to the United States, becoming a well-known author and lecturer promoting anarchism, workers’ rights,...

Spotlight on: Primary Source

Cadet Ulysses S. Grant at West Point, 1839

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

8, 9, 10, 11, 12

In 1839, seventeen-year-old Hiram Ulysses Grant received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point. It changed the course of his life—and his name. Grant always disliked his first name and was commonly known...

Spotlight on: Primary Source

American Indians' service in World War I, 1920

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

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

More than 11,000 American Indians served with the American forces during World War I. Nearly 5,000 Native men enlisted and approximately 6,500 were drafted—despite the fact that almost half of American Indians were not citizens and...

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Recalling the Bombing of Birmingham's Sixteenth Street Baptist Church

Video: Book Breaks

Eric Foner - "The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Made the Constitution"

Eric Foner is the DeWitt Clinton Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University. Order The Second Founding at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every purchase through the link provided. Thank...

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Annette Gordon-Reed - "The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family"

Annette Gordon-Reed is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor and a professor of history at Harvard. Order The Hemingses of Monticello at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every purchase through the...

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John Barry - "The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Plague in History"

John Barry is an author, historian, and adjunct faculty at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Order The Great Influenza at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every...

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Richard Stengel - "Information Wars: How We Lost the Global Battle against Disinformation and What We Can Do about It"

Richard Stengel served as the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center and is a former Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy. Order Information Wars at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate...

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Peniel Joseph - "The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr."

Peniel Joseph holds the Barbara Jordan Chair in Ethics and Political Values and is the founding director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at the University of Texas at Austin. Order The Sword and the Shield at the...