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History Now Essay

Her Hat Was in the Ring: How Thousands of Women Were Elected to Political Office before 1920

Wendy E. Chmielewski

Government and Civics

In 1866, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the well-known leader of the woman’s rights movement, declared her intention to run for Congress, from Brooklyn, New York. Stanton was probably the first woman to campaign for a federal office. It...

Appears in:

47 | American Women in Leadership Winter 2017

History Now Essay

How Women Legislate

Sue Thomas

An enduring question about women in politics is whether they operate differently from men. If so, do these differences affect government policies and procedures, especially those that flow from local, state, and national legislatures?...

Appears in:

47 | American Women in Leadership Winter 2017

History Now Essay

Women and the United States Supreme Court

Julie Silverbrook

Government and Civics

If you ask most people about the history of women and the United States Supreme Court, they are likely to point to the historic nomination of Sandra Day O’Connor as the first female justice, in 1981. That is a watershed moment in our...

Appears in:

47 | American Women in Leadership Winter 2017

History Now Essay

Women’s Leadership in the American Revolution

Rosemarie Zagarri

What did it mean for women to exercise "leadership" in the American Revolution? Before that conflict, the question itself would probably have baffled most American women and men. Living within a staunchly patriarchal society, they...

Appears in:

47 | American Women in Leadership Winter 2017

History Now Essay

Clarksdale: Myth, Music, and Mercy in the Mississippi Delta

Shelley Ritter

While the term the blues means many different things to many different people, it’s undeniable that everyone gets them at one point or another. As the late vocalist Johnny Taylor sang, "People got money, still got problems/ Go to the...

Appears in:

48 | Jazz, the Blues, and American Identity Summer 2017

History Now Essay

Robert Johnson and the Rise of the Blues

Elijah Wald

In November of 1936, a young man named Robert Johnson traveled from Mississippi to San Antonio, Texas, for his first recording session with the American Record Corporation. He was twenty-five years old and had already hoboed and...

Appears in:

48 | Jazz, the Blues, and American Identity Summer 2017

History Now Essay

Songs of a Different South: The Allman Brothers’ Blues-Rock Legacy

Kerry Candaele

In March 1971, the Allman Brothers Band—Duane Allman (guitar), Gregg Allman (vocals, organ), Jai Johanny "Jaimoe" Johnson (drums), Butch Trucks (drums), Dickey Betts (guitar), and Berry Oakley (bass)—took the stage at the Fillmore...

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48 | Jazz, the Blues, and American Identity Summer 2017

History Now Essay

Charles Mingus and the Third Stream

Krin Gabbard

Among the many jazz movements in which Charles Mingus (1922–1979) participated, the most likely and the most unlikely was Third Stream Music. [1] Gunther Schuller (1925–2015) coined the term, describing Third Stream as "the fusion and...

Appears in:

48 | Jazz, the Blues, and American Identity Summer 2017

History Now Essay

From the Editor

Carol Berkin

History Now welcomes you back to the classroom for another exciting semester engaging the American past. We begin this school year with an issue on early American religion that highlights one of the critical characteristics of our...

Appears in:

29 | Religion in the Colonial World Fall 2011

History Now Essay

From the Editor

Carol Berkin

To celebrate the launch of Gilder Lehrman’s new website, we at History Now thought it appropriate to provide readers with a special, expanded issue. We chose for our topic one of the central themes in our national history: the causes...

Appears in:

31 | Perspectives on America’s Wars Spring 2012

History Now Essay

Welcome to the Inaugural Issue of History Now

Carol Berkin

The Gilder Lehrman Institute’s quarterly American history online journal. The journal’s primary mission: to promote the study of American history with articles from noted historians as well as lesson plans, resource guides, links to...

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1 | Elections Fall 2004

History Now Essay

Welcome To The Second Issue of History Now

Carol Berkin

Students often ask: How do historians know what happened in the past? How do they know what Frederick Douglass said about slavery, what Abigail Adams thought about American independence, or what happened at Sutter’s mill? As scholars...

Appears in:

2 | Primary Sources on Slavery Winter 2004

History Now Essay

Welcome to the Third Issue of History Now

Carol Berkin

It is a cliché that America is a land of immigrants. But there is truth behind this cliché. From the migrating hunters who crossed the Bering Strait thousands of years ago to the Mayflower’s English passengers of 1620 to the Ukrainian...

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3 | Immigration Spring 2005

History Now Essay

Welcome to the Fourth Issue of History Now

Carol Berkin

National holidays often conjure up images of family gatherings, picnics and barbeques, jubilant children celebrating a day off from school, and newspaper advertisements of department store sales. Yet as historians and history teachers...

Appears in:

4 | American National Holidays Summer 2005

History Now Essay

From The Editor

Carol Berkin

Abolition, temperance, women's rights, utopian experiments, religious revivalism, prison, asylum, and even diet reform: Readers of this list know right away that they have been transported to the 1830s and '40s, America's first great ...

Appears in:

5 | Abolition Fall 2005

History Now Essay

From The Editor

Carol Berkin

Welcome to the sixth issue of HISTORY NOW. I am pleased to announce that HISTORY NOW was recently selected by the National Endowment for the Humanities for inclusion on EDSITEment ( http://edsitement.neh.gov ) as one of the best...

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From the Editor

History Now Essay

From the Editor

Carol Berkin

In this issue, HISTORY NOW looks at the efforts by women across two centuries to gain the right to vote and to enjoy equal opportunities within American society. The women’s rights movement, like the struggle by African Americans to...

Appears in:

7 | Women's Suffrage Spring 2006

History Now Essay

From The Editor

Carol Berkin

As the editor of History Now, let me welcome you back to another year in the classroom. What better way to start the year than with an issue on The American West? Of course, for many students, mention of "The West" conjures up popular...

Appears in:

9 | The American West Fall 2006

History Now Essay

From The Editor

Carol Berkin

Computers, iPods, cell phones, Blackberries . . . Radio, movies, television, videos . . . cars, planes, space shuttles . . . washing machines, dish washers, robotic vacuum cleaners . . . laser surgery, heart transplants, artificial...

Appears in:

10 | Nineteenth Century Technology Winter 2006

History Now Essay

From The Editor

Carol Berkin

Urbanization is a major theme in modern American history and it is intimately connected to such events as the revolutions in transportation and manufacturing and the expansion of our borders to the Pacific Ocean and the Rio Grande. In...

Appears in:

11 | American Cities Spring 2007

History Now Essay

From The Editor

Carol Berkinc

As school children, my generation thrilled to the stories of European explorers who set out in small wooden ships to cross uncharted seas. These men represented the curiosity, imagination, and desire for new experiences, exotic goods...

Appears in:

12 | The Age Of Exploration Summer 2007

History Now Essay

From The Editor

Carol Berkin

When delegates from twelve states gathered in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787, many of them feared that the quarrels between the states, the sudden rash of internal rebellions, the continuing presence of enemies on our national...

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13 | The Constitution Fall 2007

History Now Essay

From The Editor

Carol Berkin

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, bringing the United States into the global conflict known as World War II. The impact of this war was felt by civilians as well as soldiers, as the nation transformed itself...

Appears in:

14 | World War II Winter 2007

History Now Essay

From The Editor

Carol Berkin

Like the other branches of the national government, the court system has evolved over the course our history. The structure of the court was not fully defined in the Constitution. The first effort to organize the court and clarify its...

Appears in:

15 | The Supreme Court Spring 2008

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