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At the end of the nineteenth century, American politicians, journalists, professionals, and volunteers mobilized on behalf of reforms meant to deal with a variety of social problems associated with industrialization. Woman activists,...

History Now Essay

Women and the Progressive Movement

Miriam Cohen

6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

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Today we take women’s suffrage for granted, but many activists of the nineteenth century, including Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, struggled their whole lives for the vote, and did not live to see it. As a presidential...

History Now Essay

Modern Women Persuading Modern Men: The Nineteenth Amendment and the Movement for Woman Suffrage, 1916–1920

Jonathan Soffer

Government and Civics

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The fact that the telegram before him bore Arthur Zimmermann’s name made its contents that much harder for Walter Hines Page to believe. Page was the American ambassador to Great Britain and on a cold London morning in late February...

History Now Essay

The Zimmermann Telegram and American Entry into World War I

Michael S. Neiberg

World History

6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

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As dawn broke on June 6, 1944, the Allied invasion fleet became visible crossing the choppy waters of the English Channel to France. None of those who took part in D-Day, whether soldier, sailor, or airman, would ever forget the sight...

History Now Essay

D-Day or Operation Overlord, June 6, 1944

Antony Beevor

World History

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

Appears in:

Bitter over the American declaration of war in 1812, when the British Empire had faced the emperor Napoleon at the peak of his power, the British sought payback in 1814. The war erupted over American anger at the British for seizing...

History Now Essay

The Battle for Baltimore

Alan Taylor

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By the 1580s the French were ahead of the British in reaching into the interior of North America. They had established trading companies there, and their ships regularly brought furs back to France. Early in the seventeenth century...

History Now Essay

George Washington’s French and Indian War

Theodore J. Crackel

World History

6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

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The murder of more than 400 Vietnamese civilians in My Lai and My Khe by US soldiers on March 16, 1968, stands as one of the darkest days in the nation’s military history. It left an indelible stain on America’s record in Vietnam, the...

History Now Essay

The Vietnam War and the My Lai Massacre

George Herring

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In August 1990, the Iraqi army invaded Kuwait. Five short months later, a powerful coalition led by the United States would launch Operation Desert Storm, one of the most rapid, decisive, and bloodless victories of all time. In just...

History Now Essay

Technology in the Persian Gulf War of 1991

Robert Citino

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, World History

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

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The Korean War was three different conflicts from the perspective of the disparate groups who fought in it. For North and South Korea, the conflict was a civil war, a struggle with no possible compromise between two competing visions...

History Now Essay

The Korean War

Allan R. Millett

World History

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

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Four days after the battle of Antietam, which took place near Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17, 1862, Captain Robert Gould Shaw of the 2nd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry wrote to his father: "Every battle makes me wish more and...

History Now Essay

The Battle of Antietam: A Turning Point in the Civil War

James M. McPherson

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

Appears in:

Early on the morning of October 17, 1781, Lieutenant General Charles, Lord Cornwallis, found himself hunkered down in a cave near the southern shoreline of the York River. Above him was the disintegrating hamlet of Yorktown, Virginia,...

History Now Essay

No Way Out: Lord Cornwallis, the Siege of Yorktown, and America’s Victory in the War for Independence

James Kirby Martin

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"Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly Plants." So begins Michael Pollan’s 2009 book, In Defense of Food . Pollan has made a career educating Americans about the dangers of our contemporary, industrialized food supply. His book offers a...

History Now Essay

Sylvester Graham and Antebellum Diet Reform

Cindy Lobel

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Education reform is often at the heart of all great reform struggles. [1] By the 1820s Americans were experiencing exhilarating as well as unsettling social and economic changes. In the North, the familiar rural and agrarian life was...

History Now Essay

Education Reform in Antebellum America

Barbara Winslow

Economics, Religion and Philosophy

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Those Americans who have heard of American Transcendentalism associate it with the writers Ralph Waldo Emerson and his friend Henry David Thoreau. Asked to name things about the group they remember, most mention Emerson’s ringing...

History Now Essay

Transcendentalism and Social Reform

Philip F. Gura

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Before learning of Commodore George Dewey’s destruction of the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay on the morning of May 1, 1898, few Americans knew anything about the Philippine Islands. In her Pulitzer Prize–winning In the Days of McKinley ...

History Now Essay

The War against Spain in the Philippines in 1898

Richard Meixsel

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In the middle of the fifteenth century, Europe, Africa, and the Americas came together, creating—among other things—a new economy. At the center of that economy was the plantation, an enterprise dedicated to the production of exotic...

Essay

The Discovery of the Americas and the Transatlantic Slave Trade

Ira Berlin

History Now Essay

The Material Culture of Slave Resistance

Douglas R. Egerton

6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Artifacts tell stories. Sometimes the tales are unclear or even contradictory, and sometimes artifacts—not unlike a dishonest diarist—can even lead the unwary historian astray. But the material culture of enslaved Americans, from...

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2 | Primary Sources on Slavery Winter 2004

History Now Essay

"People Get Ready": Music and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s

Brian Ward

Government and Civics

6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Few sights or sounds conjure up the passion and purposefulness of the Southern Civil Rights Movement as powerfully as the freedom songs that provided a stirring musical accompaniment to the campaign for racial justice and equality in...

Appears in:

8 | The Civil Rights Movement Summer 2006

Essay

September 11, 2001

the National September 11 Memorial & Museum

Government and Civics, World History

K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

"9/11" has emerged as shorthand for the four coordinated terrorist attacks on the United States that took place on September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists from the Islamist extremist group al Qaeda hijacked four...

History Now Essay

The Scarlet Letter and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s America

Brenda Wineapple

Literature

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

Nathaniel Hawthorne is the strange American author who has never been out of fashion; since his death in 1864, his stories and novels have resisted the tides of taste, canon reformation, and critical vicissitude. Herman Melville had...

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16 | Books That Changed History Summer 2008

Essay

Mary Elizabeth Lease: Populist Reformer

Kelly A. Woestman

Blaming Wall Street for the nation’s economic woes is not a new idea in American history. Over a century ago, Mary Elizabeth Lease, the best-known orator of the Populist era, asserted, "Wall Street owns the country. It is no longer a...

History Now Essay

African Forced Migration to Colonial America

Ira Berlin

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...

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3 | Immigration Spring 2005

History Now Essay

Suggested Resources for George Washington and the French and Indian War from the Archivist

Mary-Jo Kline

For additional information on the broader Seven Years’ War, of which the French and Indian campaigns were only a part, use this recent one-volume study: Baugh, Daniel A. The Global Seven Years War, 1754–1763: Britain and France in a...

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Prof. McPherson is the author of Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), the authoritative study of the battle and its aftermath. You and your students may also want to look at some of...

History Now Essay

Suggested Resources on the Civil War and the Battle of Antietam from the Archivist

Mary-Jo Kline

Appears in:

There’s an odd pattern to published works about this conflict, whether you call it Desert Shield/Desert Storm or the First Persian Gulf War. A flurry of books appeared within two years of the end of hostilities—indeed, a couple...

History Now Essay

Suggested Resources on Desert Storm from the Archivist

Mary-Jo Kline

Appears in:

Prof. Martin has written extensively on the American Revolution. Of his many books, the one most relevant to the essay you’ve just read is his collaboration with Mark E. Lender, A Respectable Army: The Military Origins of the Republic...

History Now Essay

Suggested Resources on the American Revolution and Lord Cornwallis from the Archivist

Mary-Jo Kline

Appears in:

Professor Neiberg has written extensively on World War I. Of his many books, Fighting the Great War: A Global History (Cambridge, MA: Harvard, 2006) will be most helpful in teaching the topics discussed in this essay. Although this...

Essay

Suggested Resources on World War I and the Zimmermann Telegram from the Archivist

Mary-Jo Kline

History Now Essay

Suggested Resources on the War of 1812 from the Archivist

Mary-Jo Kline

Prof. Taylor’s most recent book, the prizewinning The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, and Indian Allies (New York: Knopf, 2010), focuses on the conflict along the US-Canadian border involving...

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In teaching the era of progressive reforms, it is hard to resist the temptation to focus on the two progressive presidents. Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, figures of enormous power and striking failings, are the sorts of...

History Now Essay

The Transnational Nature of the Progressive Era

Daniel T. Rodgers

World History

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Appears in:

Abraham Lincoln immortalized himself in American history by the role that he played in abolishing the institution of slavery, but he arrived at this distinction only after a long career of opposition to abolitionism. This at first...

History Now Essay

Lincoln and Abolitionism

Douglas L. Wilson

Appears in:

6 | Lincoln Winter 2005

37 | Gettysburg: Insights and Perspectives Fall 2013

History Now Essay

"Fun, Fun Rock ’n’ Roll High School"

Glenn C. Altschuler and Robert O. Summers

Art, Government and Civics

5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

With his tongue halfway in his cheek, Ambrose Bierce defined history as "an account, mostly false, of events, mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools." Well, we’ve come a long...

Appears in:

32 | The Music and History of Our Times Summer 2012

History Now Essay

The Forties and the Music of World War II

Elihu Rose

Art

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

The 1940s were the apotheosis of American popular music. Swing, blues and country were all popular styles but, above all, it was the heyday of the seventeen-piece big band. Names like Benny Goodman, Glen Miller, Tommy Dorsey, and Duke...

Appears in:

32 | The Music and History of Our Times Summer 2012

History Now Essay

9/11 and Springsteen

Craig Werner

Art, Government and Civics, World History

6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

The transformation of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, into a seemingly foreordained historical narrative began almost as soon as the first plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Center. I was teaching an 8 a.m....

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32 | The Music and History of Our Times Summer 2012

History Now Essay

Globalizing Protest in the 1980s: Musicians Collaborate to Change the World

Douglas R. Egerton and Leigh Fought

Art, Government and Civics, World History

13+

"There something’s happening here," Stephen Stills sang in "For What It’s Worth," a 1966 song about a confrontation between students and police in Los Angeles. And for a time, there was. Radio stations filled the air with protest...

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32 | The Music and History of Our Times Summer 2012

History Now Essay

Women and the Music Industry in the 1970s

Elizabeth L. Wollman

Art

The 1970s gets a bad rap. Rarely revered as a glorious—or even particularly memorable—time in contemporary American history, the seventies is more often seen as the sad stepchild to the 1960s, which is celebrated as a decade of peace,...

Appears in:

32 | The Music and History of Our Times Summer 2012

History Now Essay

The Sixties and Protest Music

Kerry Candaele

Art, Government and Civics

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

Music has always kept company with American wars. During the Revolutionary War, "Yankee Doodle" and many other songs set to reels and dances were sung to keep spirits alive during dark hours. "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," Lincoln...

Appears in:

32 | The Music and History of Our Times Summer 2012

History Now Essay

Pop Music and the Spatialization of Race in the 1990s

Mark Anthony Neal

In September 1990, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air debuted on NBC. The show starred Will Smith, also known as the Fresh Prince, of the rap duo DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, portraying a character, "Will Smith," who relocates from a...

Appears in:

32 | The Music and History of Our Times Summer 2012

57 | Black Voices in American Historiography Summer 2020

Essay

Entrepreneurs and Bankers: The Evolution of Corporate Empires

Robert W. Cherny

James J. Hill enjoyed being called "the Empire Builder," taking it as a compliment for his work as president of the Great Northern Railway. Hill’s railway company, which ran through the northern Great Plains and Pacific Northwest,...

History Now Essay

The Making of the President: Abraham Lincoln and the Election of 1860

Harold Holzer

Government and Civics

Perhaps the most surprising thing to modern Americans about the 1860 presidential campaign—the historic election that sent Abraham Lincoln to the White House—is how little actual campaigning the presidential candidates that year did....

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James Monroe’s two terms in office as president of the United States (1817–1825) are often called the "Era of Good Feelings." The country appeared to have entered a period of strength, unity of purpose, and one-party government with...

History Now Essay

Adams v. Jackson: The Election of 1824

Edward G. Lengel

Government and Civics

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When Vice President Albert Gore Jr. and George W. Bush, governor of Texas, squared off in the 2000 presidential election, people predicted it was going to be a historic election. The November results would determine not only which...

History Now Essay

Hanging by a Chad—or Not: The 2000 Presidential Election

James Gormly

Government and Civics

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When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt decided to seek a fourth term in 1944, his campaign would come to mark a major moment in the history of presidential elections for several reasons. No president had run for a fourth term prior...

History Now Essay

Franklin Delano Roosevelt—Four-Term President—and the Election of 1944

Matthew Dallek

Government and Civics

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The presidential election of 1876 is better known for its controversial aftermath than for the campaign that preceded it. The basic outline of events after Election Day, November 7, 1876, is familiar. The Democratic candidate,...

History Now Essay

The Contentious Election of 1876

Michael F. Holt

Economics, Government and Civics

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"I come as a friend to offer my help to this very interesting republic," wrote the nineteen-year-old Marquis de Lafayette from aboard the Victoire as it sailed from France across the ocean to the rebellious British colonies in the...

History Now Essay

Advice (Not Taken) for the French Revolution from America

Susan Dunn

World History

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

Appears in:

If one says "American Revolution" in the United States today, it is assumed that what is being referred to is the North American liberation struggles against the British Empire in the late eighteenth century. But the British North...

History Now Essay

The US and Spanish American Revolutions

Jay Sexton

Economics, Geography, Government and Civics, World History

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After the British signed the peace treaty that ended the American War for Independence in 1783, the City of London decided to commission a work of art to commemorate the conflict. The city’s representatives approached John Singleton...

History Now Essay

The Other Theater: The War for American Independence beyond the Colonies

Patrick Spero

Geography, World History

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The late eighteenth century saw two successful anti-colonial revolutions unfold in the Americas. The first was in the United States, culminating in 1783. The second was in Haiti, then the French colony of Saint-Domingue. That...

History Now Essay

Two Revolutions in the Atlantic World: Connections between the American Revolution and the Haitian Revolution

Laurent Dubois

Economics, Government and Civics, World History

Appears in:

The US Constitution assigns no duties or responsibilities to the president’s spouse. Every woman had to define for herself the role she wanted to play. From the blank slate that Martha Washington encountered in 1789, the job gradually...

History Now Essay

First Ladies’ Contributions to Political Issues and the National Welfare

Betty Boyd Caroli

Government and Civics

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Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962), one of the most admired women in American history, acted as first lady from 1933 until 1945, longer than any other presidential spouse, and put that position on the nation’s political map. Yet,...

History Now Essay

Eleanor Roosevelt as First Lady

Maurine Beasley

Appears in:

Whatever else you can say about Dolley Payne Todd Madison (1768–1849), she was famous. She was so well known and well regarded in her lifetime that, at her death in 1849, both houses of Congress adjourned, along with the Supreme Court...

History Now Essay

Dolley Madison: First Lady and Queen

Catherine Allgor

Government and Civics

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During nearly forty-one years of marriage, Martha and George Washington lived together in harmony and mutual enjoyment. Never did he play the overbearing patriarch nor she the querulous nag. Theirs was a peaceful domestic partnership,...

History Now Essay

Martha Washington Creates the Role of First Lady

Patricia Brady

Government and Civics

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Americans never elected Gerald R. Ford president or even vice president—Richard Nixon appointed him after Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned in October 1973. Today, Ford’s brief presidency is often forgotten. Yet during Ford’s two...

History Now Essay

Betty Ford: A New Kind of First Lady

Gil Troy

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Books and Printed Materials Carpenter, Linda Jean, and R. Vivian Acosta. Title IX. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2005. [A book designed to help sports professionals understand the law and its implications.] Hogshead-Makar, Nancy, and...

History Now Essay

Suggested Resources on Title IX from the Archivist

Mary-Jo Kline

Appears in:

23 | Turning Points in American Sports Spring 2010

History Now Essay

"No Event Could Have Filled Me with Greater Anxieties": George Washington and the First Inaugural Address, April 30, 1789

Phillip Hamilton

Government and Civics

George Washington’s fame rests not upon his words but upon his deeds. Therefore, his First Inaugural Address is sometimes overlooked. This is unfortunate because the words he delivered on Thursday, April 30, 1789, not only launched...

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A New York Times headline in January 2009 captured the essence of Barack Obama’s inauguration for many Americans: "A Civil Rights Victory Party on the Mall." An estimated 1.8 million people gathered to celebrate. Many heroes of the...

History Now Essay

A More Perfect Union? Barack Obama and the Politics of Unity

Thomas J. Sugrue

Government and Civics

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Several years ago when I was researching a very different subject at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, New York, I happened across several archival documents related to FDR’s first inaugural address. As a...

History Now Essay

FDR’s First Inaugural Address

Davis W. Houck

Economics, Government and Civics

Appears in:

Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address was a peerless work of political theology, evoked in the native tongue he had mastered in the same diligent way he had mastered the rebellion. In 703 words, he summarized the moral dilemma of...

History Now Essay

Lincoln’s Second Inaugural

Lewis E. Lehrman

Government and Civics

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On January 20, 1961, as on most presidential inauguration days, the nation was governed by one president until noon and by another afterward. The contrast between outgoing President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his incoming successor,...

History Now Essay

John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address

Michael Nelson

Government and Civics

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