Search | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

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Essay

Using Works of Art in Teaching American History

Daniel Walker Howe

Art, World History

The best teachers of Western Civilization courses have long made use of the European fine arts—painting, sculpture, architecture, the decorative arts—to bring the subject alive to their students. It is perhaps less well recognized...

Essay

What’s That Sound? Teaching the 1960s through Popular Music

Brian Ward

Art

There’s Something Happening Here . . . The 1960s was one of the most dramatic and controversial decades in American history. Opinions about its achievements and failures continue to be divided between those who condemn the decade as...

Video: Book Breaks

Stacy Schiff - "The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams"

Government and Civics

Stacy Schiff is a Pulitzer Prize–winning author. Order The Revolutionary at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every purchase through the link provided. Thank you for supporting our programs! ...

Video: Inside The Vault

Inside the Vault: “Pathological liar”: Harry Truman and the rise of Joseph McCarthy in 1950

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

In February 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy accused more than 200 staff at the Department of State of being members of the Communist Party. How did President Harry Truman respond to the attack on his administration? On December 7, 2023...

Video: Book Breaks

Theresa Runstedtler - "Black Ball: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Spencer Haywood, and the Generation That Saved the Soul of the NBA"

Theresa Runstedtler is an associate professor of history at American University. Order Black Ball at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every purchase through the link provided. Thank you for...

Essay

The Fight for LGBT Rights after World War II

Timothy Stewart-Winter

The oppression of LGBT Americans did not begin in the post–World War II decades, but they faced increasingly systematic exclusion from public life, in part resulting from the Cold War political climate of fear and distrust of people...

Essay

The Disability Rights Movement in America

Jaipreet Virdi

Disabled people have always fought for their rights. This is because they know that every policy issue, health crisis, inaccessible space, and fight for justice is a disability issue. Demanding access and advocacy for all people,...

Video: Book Breaks

Mark Whitaker- "Saying It Loud: 1966―The Year Black Power Challenged the Civil Rights Movement"

Government and Civics

Mark Whitaker is a best-selling author and a journalist who served as editor of Newsweek . Order Saying It Loud at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every purchase through the link provided. Thank...

Video: Book Breaks

Jonathan W. White - "Shipwrecked: A True Civil War Story of Mutinies, Jailbreaks, Blockade-Running, and the Slave Trade"

Government and Civics

Jonathan W. White is a professor of American studies at Christopher Newport University. Order Shipwrecked at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every purchase through the link provided. Thank you for...

Video: Inside The Vault

Inside the Vault: The San Francisco Earthquake

Geography, Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

“Wednesday, April 18th. will go down in history as the date of the most terrible calamity the United States, and particularly California, has ever known. I do not feel much like writing about it. Would feel better if I could cry but...