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History Now Essay

From The Editor

Carol Berkin

Literature

Every teacher knows that a novel can sometimes convey the mood and spirit of a historical era or event more powerfully than a textbook. And every teacher also knows that some novels have even made history. These are books that every...

Appears in:

16 | Books That Changed History Summer 2008

History Now Essay

From The Editor

Carol Berkin

The name Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt conjures up many images: from hunter to teddy bear, from trust-buster to champion of capitalism, from Republican president to Bull Moose challenger. T.R. remains controversial, contradictory, and...

Appears in:

17 | Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Era Fall 2008

History Now Essay

From The Editor

Carol Berkin

Abraham Lincoln is surely the most revered and admired president in our national history. As we look forward to the bicentennial of President Lincoln’s birthday in 2009, History Now is fortunate to have four leading Lincoln scholars...

Appears in:

18 | Abraham Lincoln in His Time and Ours Winter 2008

History Now Essay

From The Editor

Carol Berkin

As Americans anxiously watch the stock market’s daily fluctuations, the rising unemployment rate, housing foreclosures and the scandals that have rocked the financial world, the fear of another Great Depression hovers in our minds....

Appears in:

19 | The Great Depression Spring 2009

History Now Essay

From The Editor

Carol Berkin

Modern headlines often carry news of scandals, crimes, corruption, and violence. When historians study this darker side of life, they hope to use the events as windows on a particular era, shedding light on its cultural and religious...

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20 | High Crimes and Misdemeanors Summer 2009

History Now Essay

From the Editor

Carol Berkin

In 1763 Americans toasted their King and their Mother Country. Twenty years later, they celebrated their independence from both. The story of the birth of our nation is a fascinating one—complex, surprising, triumphant and tragic. It...

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21 | The American Revolution Fall 2009

History Now Essay

From The Editor

Carol Berkin

In the decades immediately following the War of 1812, the face of America changed. Population grew and young Americans far outnumbered their parents. For many the West beckoned, and settlers poured into the region west of the original...

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22 | Andrew Jackson and His World Winter 2009

History Now Essay

From The Editor

Carol Berkin

Americans love their sports. Many of us watch the year flow by, not from month to month, but from baseball to soccer to basketball to football season—until spring training rolls around and the cycle begins once more. Over our morning...

Appears in:

23 | Turning Points in American Sports Spring 2010

History Now Essay

From The Editor

Carol Berkin

In recent months, our newspapers, cable shows, blogs and even You Tube have been filled with articles and commentary on the American economy. From optimistic reassurances that American capitalism and its institutions are basically...

Appears in:

24 | Shaping the American Economy Summer 2010

History Now Essay

From the Editor

Carol Berkin

Teachers responsible for a class in early American history often find themselves asking: When does American history begin? What does "America" include? Is this a story only of the English colonies, or is it the story of the settlement...

Appears in:

25 | Three Worlds Meet Fall 2010

History Now Essay

From the Editor

Carol Berkin

In this final issue of 2010, History Now offers readers a selection of the latest interpretations of the Civil War era by four leading historians. These essays remind us that this critical moment in the history of our nation continues...

Appears in:

26 | New Interpretations of the Civil War Winter 2010

History Now Essay

From The Editor

Carol Berkin

Many of us who grew up in the decades of the Cold War have memories of participating in air raid drills in school, watching Joseph McCarthy and his anti-communist hearings on the grainy black and white of our televisions, waiting...

Appears in:

27 | The Cold War Spring 2011

History Now Essay

From the Editor

Carol Berkin

Everything that American children of my generation knew—or thought they knew—about Indians, or Native Americans, came from Saturday afternoon cowboy and Indian movies. We knew that they talked funny; they all lived in teepees; they...

Appears in:

28 | American Indians Summer 2011

History Now Essay

From The Editor

Carol Berkin

The desire to reform and even to perfect society is as American as apple pie. From the Puritans’ determination to create "a city upon a hill," to the utopian communities of the early nineteenth century, to the communes created by...

Appears in:

30 | American Reform Movements Winter 2012

History Now Essay

From The Editor

Carol Berkin

The struggle for equality is one of the defining themes of American history. In recent issues of HISTORY NOW scholars and teachers have charted the movements to end slavery, to insure women’s suffrage, and to provide opportunities for...

Appears in:

8 | The Civil Rights Movement Summer 2006

History Now Essay

From the Editor

Carol Berkin

Popular music is the soundtrack to much of our history. When Revolutionary War soldiers went off to war, they did so to the tune of "Yankee Doodle." Abolitionist songs, sung by groups like the Hutchinson Family Singers, brought the...

Appears in:

32 | The Music and History of Our Times Summer 2012

History Now Essay

From the Editor

Carol Berkin

Once again, presidential politics is in the air—and on the television. And on the radio. And on the web, on billboards, and bumper stickers. In a presidential election year, it seems as if our nation’s full attention is focused on the...

Appears in:

33 | Electing a President Fall 2012

History Now Essay

From the Editor

Carol Berkin

"The happiness of America is intimately tied to the happiness of all humanity," the young Marquis de Lafayette wrote in 1777. His comment suggests the immediate and the long-range impact of a revolution that was one of the first...

Appears in:

34 | The Revolutionary Age Winter 2012

History Now Essay

From the Editor

Carol Berkin

The Constitution does not spell out the duties or define the powers of a president’s spouse, yet America’s "first ladies" have, from the beginning of our nation, played key roles as public figures. They have set precedents,...

Appears in:

35 | America’s First Ladies Spring 2013

History Now Essay

From the Editor

Carol Berkin

Some of the most powerful political statements in American history appear in the inaugural addresses of our presidents. In crises and in moments of social and cultural change, in wartime and peace, the president we have elected speaks...

Appears in:

36 | Great Inaugural Addresses Summer 2013

History Now Essay

From the Editor

Carol Berkin

If the Civil War is the most significant event of our national history, the Battle of Gettysburg is surely its most memorable moment. For this issue of History Now, we asked our contributors to provide novel perspectives and new...

Appears in:

37 | Gettysburg: Insights and Perspectives Fall 2013

History Now Essay

Take a Teacher’s Tour of the Battle of Gettysburg

Matthew Pinsker

Historian Matthew Pinsker leads a teacher’s tour of the Battle of Gettysburg, highlighting key moments and individuals to illustrate the broad story of the battle, its implications for the Civil War, and its legacy in American history...

Appears in:

37 | Gettysburg: Insights and Perspectives Fall 2013

History Now Essay

From the Editor

Carol Berkin

Hank Williams sang about the lonely sound of a train whistle in the night. Iconic photographs capture the laying of the last rail. Countless movies and books set their adventures aboard railroad cars. Despite the advent of airplanes...

Appears in:

38 | The Joining of the Rails: The Transcontinental Railroad Winter 2014

History Now Essay

From the Editor

Carol Berkin

From Virgil to Shakespeare to Walt Whitman, poets have often turned to historical subjects for their topic, preserving historical events and figures in verse. This poetry, in turn, becomes the subject of historical inquiry as scholars...

Appears in:

39 | American Poets, American History Spring 2014

History Now Essay

His Excellency General Washington

Phillis Wheatley

SIR, I Have taken the freedom to address your Excellency in the enclosed poem, and entreat your acceptance, though I am not insensible of its inaccuracies. Your being appointed by the Grand Continental Congress to be Generalissimo of...

Appears in:

39 | American Poets, American History Spring 2014