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Art, Economics, Foreign Languages, Geography, Government and Civics, Literature, Religion and Philosophy, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, World History

Ken Burns, the producer and director of numerous film series, including The Roosevelts: An Intimate History and Country Music , founded his own documentary film company, Florentine Films, in 1976. His landmark film, The Civil War ,...

Video

Europeans and the New World, 1400–1530

Economics, Geography, Government and Civics, Religion and Philosophy, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, World History

Brian DeLay, associate professor of history at the University of California, Berkeley, discusses how the backwater of western Europe emerged from the devastation of the fourteenth century to generate the power, wealth, knowledge,...

Video

Exchanges of Culture and Conflict in the Southwest

Economics, Geography, Government and Civics, Religion and Philosophy, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, World History

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

Professor DeLay looks at changes in thought, technology, and outlook that prompted early exploration, and Spain’s late entry into colonial pursuits.

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

Program/Event

Hamilton Cast Read Alongs

The Gilder Lehrman Institute is excited to extend Hamilton Cast Read Alongs. A program that features Hamilton cast members reading award-winning children’s books followed by a discussion of the history behind the story led by Gilder...

History Now Essay

First Ladies’ Contributions to Political Issues and the National Welfare

Betty Boyd Caroli

Government and Civics

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...

Appears in:

35 | America’s First Ladies Spring 2013

Lesson Plan

JFK’s Inaugural Address

Government and Civics

4, 5, 6

Unit Objective This lesson on President John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address is part of Gilder Lehrman’s series of Common Core–based units. These units were written to enable students to understand, summarize, and analyze original...

Guided Readings

Guided Readings: Origins of the Cold War: The Containment Policy

Economics, Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12

Reading 1 Soviet power...bears within itself the seeds of its own decay, and the sprouting of these seeds is well advanced...[If] anything were ever to disrupt the unity and efficacy of the Party as a political instrument, Soviet...

Spotlight on: Primary Source

Aaron Burr, fugitive and traitor, 1804

On July 11, 1804, Vice President Aaron Burr shot former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton in a duel in Weehawken, New Jersey. Nine days later he wrote this cryptic letter (partially in cipher) to his son-in-law, Joseph...

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

News

Soldier Spotlight: A Union Soldier Loses a Daughter

George Tillotson from Greene, New York, enlisted in the 89th New York Infantry in November 1861. Some of his Civil War–era letters are among the 15,000 letters in the Gilder Lehrman Collection written by servicemen . He wrote home on...

News

Get to Know the 2017 History Teachers of the Year: Andrea Guy, Tennessee

This year, Gilder Lehrman recognized 52 State History Teachers of the Year for their tireless and innovative efforts to make history come alive for their students. These exceptional educators were awarded $1,000 and an archive of...

News

Get to Know the 2017 History Teachers of the Year: John-David Bowman, Arizona

Spotlight on: Primary Source

A Jamestown settler describes life in Virginia, 1622

Economics, Geography

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

The first English settlers in Jamestown, Virginia, who arrived in 1607, were eager to find gold and silver. Instead they found sickness and disease. Eventually, these colonists learned how to survive in their new environment, and by...

Spotlight on: Primary Source

Declaration of Independence, 1776

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

During the spring of 1776, colonies, localities, and groups of ordinary Americans—including New York mechanics, Pennsylvania militiamen, and South Carolina grand juries—adopted resolutions endorsing independence. These resolutions...

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...

Appears in:

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

History Now Essay

The Jungle and the Progressive Era

Robert W. Cherny

Economics, Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

The publication of Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel The Jungle produced an immediate and powerful effect on Americans and on federal policy, but Sinclair had hoped to achieve a very different result. At the time he began working on the...

Appears in:

16 | Books That Changed History Summer 2008

News

Get to Know the 2017 History Teachers of the Year: Caroline Young, Minnesota

This year, Gilder Lehrman recognized 52 State History Teachers of the Year for their tireless and innovative efforts to make history come alive for their students. But who are they, really? We asked these talented teachers to answer a...

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