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History Now Essay

The Heart and Soul of Fannie Lou Hamer, An Extraordinary African American Leader

Earnest N. Bracey

Government and Civics

Fannie Lou Hamer was born October 6, 1917, in Montgomery County, Mississippi, to Ella and James Lee Townsend (her sharecropping parents), who taught her to never quit in her endeavors-a creed she tried to live by her entire life. Of...

Appears in:

54 | African American Women in Leadership Summer 2019

57 | Black Voices in American Historiography Summer 2020

Guided Readings

Guided Readings: Responses to Industrialism

Economics

9, 10, 11, 12

Reading 1 It is idle to talk of a peaceful strike. None such has ever occurred. All combinations to interfere with perfect freedom in the proper management and control of one's lawful business, to dictate the terms upon which such...

Essay

Admiration and Ambivalence: Frederick Douglass and John Brown

David W. Blight

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

John Brown did not make it easy for people to love him—until he died on the gallows. Frederick Douglass, from his first meeting with Brown in 1847, through a testy but important relationship in the late 1850s, had long viewed the...

History Now Essay

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

Mary-Jo Kline

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...

Appears in:

31 | Perspectives on America’s Wars Spring 2012

History Now Essay

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

Thomas J. Sugrue

Government and Civics

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...

Appears in:

36 | Great Inaugural Addresses Summer 2013

History Now Essay

African American Women in World War II

Maureen Honey

African American women made meaningful gains in the labor force and US armed forces as a result of the wartime labor shortage during the Second World War, but these advances were sharply circumscribed by racial segregation, which was...

Appears in:

46 | African American Soldiers Fall 2016

History Now Essay

Nancy Ward, Cherokee Beloved Woman

Theda Perdue

In 1755 a Cherokee woman named Nanye’hi accompanied a war party, which included her husband Kingfisher. At Taliwa in what today is north Georgia, the Cherokees engaged the enemy Creek Indians in battle. Nanye’hi crouched behind a log...

Appears in:

59 | American Indians in Leadership Winter 2021

History Now Essay

Lincoln at Cooper Union

Harold Holzer

Art, Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

In March 1860, just a few weeks after returning home from his triumphant visit to New York to deliver his Cooper Union address, Lincoln went on the road yet again. He traveled up from Springfield, Illinois, to Chicago to complete...

Appears in:

6 | Lincoln Winter 2005

History Now Essay

From the Editor

Carol Berkin

In this issue, our scholars have taken on the difficult task of examining America’s immigration policies across the centuries. From their essays we learn that modern debates over exclusion, restriction, and deportation are not new;...

Appears in:

52 | The History of US Immigration Laws Fall 2018

About page

Hawaii Teacher Misha Matsumoto Yee Named 2022 National History Teacher of the Year

Contact: Josh Landon, Director of Marketing and Communications landon@gilderlehrman.org; (646) 366-9666 NEW YORK, NY (September 27, 2022) --The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History announced today that Misha Matsumoto Yee , a...

Video

Defining the Twentieth Century

Economics, Government and Civics, World History

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

Essay

National Expansion and Reform, 1815–1860

Joyce Appleby

Economics, Geography, Government and Civics

5, 6, 7, 8

A good way to understand the men and women who created America’s reform tradition and carried it across the Mississippi in the years before the Civil War is to look at the political heritage their parents and grandparents left to them...

Essay

Empire Building

Robert W. Cherny

Economics, Geography

The years between the end of the Civil War, in 1865, and the end of the century witnessed rapid and far-reaching change in the economic and social life of the United States. During those years, the nation was transformed from rural...

History Now Essay

The Contentious Election of 1876

Michael F. Holt

Economics, Government and Civics

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,...

Appears in:

33 | Electing a President Fall 2012

History Now Essay

Women of the West

Virginia Scharff

Geography, Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Women are like water to Western history. Both have flowed through the terrain we have come to call the West, long before the inhabitants conceived of themselves as part of an expanding United States. Both have been represented as...

Appears in:

9 | The American West Fall 2006

History Now Essay

Change and Crisis: North America on the Eve of the European Invasion

Christopher L. Miller

Geography, Government and Civics, Religion and Philosophy

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

It was around the year 1450. A young man was living alone in the dense forest somewhere southeast of Lake Ontario because there was not enough food in his home village. Many like him were doing the same and some, perhaps even this...

Appears in:

25 | Three Worlds Meet Fall 2010

History Now Essay

Abolition and Antebellum Reform

Ronald G. Walters

Government and Civics, Religion and Philosophy

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

When the Boston abolitionist Thomas Wentworth Higginson looked back on the years before the Civil War, he wrote, "there prevailed then a phrase, ‘the Sisterhood of Reforms.’" He had in mind "a variety of social and psychological...

Appears in:

5 | Abolition Fall 2005

History Now Essay

The Rise of an American Institution: The Stock Market

Brian Murphy

Economics, Government and Civics, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

On nearly every workday in the United States, if you watch cable news or browse an Internet news site at 9:30 in the morning and 4:00 in the afternoon (Eastern Time), you’ll probably see two utterly unremarkable events covered live....

Appears in:

24 | Shaping the American Economy Summer 2010

History Now Essay

From the Editor

Carol Berkin

Throughout the history of our country, being able to vote has been synonymous with enjoying a political voice. Although Americans from colonial times to the present have also expressed their views on policies, programs, and political...

Appears in:

51 | The Evolution of Voting Rights Summer 2018

History Now Essay

Women's Long Journey for the Vote

Eleanor Clift

Government and Civics

The earliest and most famous expression of the discontent American women felt over their station in life was voiced by Abigail Adams in March 1776 when she urged her husband, the future president John Adams, to “Remember the Ladies, ...

Appears in:

51 | The Evolution of Voting Rights Summer 2018

News

Fall 2021 MA Program Newsletter

This fall term marks the fourth year of the Pace–Gilder Lehrman MA in American History Program . During the past nine terms, we have offered 30 courses, admitted 1,500 students, and conferred 277 degrees––thanks to our cohort, faculty...

Program/Event

Student Opportunities

The Gilder Lehrman Institute is pleased to offer several programs for students throughout the year, encouraging the study of American history and supporting students in their career and research goals. Learning Opportunities AP US...

About page

2022 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize Recipient Announced

February 15, 2022 — The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and Gettysburg College announced today that Caroline E. Janney , author of Ends of War: The Unfinished Fight of Lee’s Army after Appomattox (The University of North...

News

Meet Five Student Advisory Council Members

Created in 2014, the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s Student Advisory Council is a diverse group of high-achieving students in grades 8–12 with an interest in history. At monthly meetings, the Council provides valuable feedback on the...

Essay

From the Editor

Carol Berkin

In both scholarly and popular literature on American entrepreneurship, the focus is often on nineteenth-century inventors like John Deere and Eli Whitney or on “robber barons” like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and Cornelius...

Site Search

1,977 items

The Heart and Soul of Fannie Lou Hamer, An Extraordinary African American Leader

Guided Readings: Responses to Industrialism

Admiration and Ambivalence: Frederick Douglass and John Brown

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

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

African American Women in World War II

Nancy Ward, Cherokee Beloved Woman

Lincoln at Cooper Union

From the Editor

Hawaii Teacher Misha Matsumoto Yee Named 2022 National History Teacher of the Year

Defining the Twentieth Century

National Expansion and Reform, 1815–1860

Empire Building

The Contentious Election of 1876

Women of the West

Change and Crisis: North America on the Eve of the European Invasion

Abolition and Antebellum Reform

The Rise of an American Institution: The Stock Market

From the Editor

Women's Long Journey for the Vote

Fall 2021 MA Program Newsletter

Student Opportunities

2022 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize Recipient Announced

Meet Five Student Advisory Council Members

From the Editor

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