Site Search

57,960 items

History Now Essay

Every Citizen a Soldier: World War II Posters on the American Home Front

William L. Bird Jr. and Harry Rubenstein

Art, Government and Civics, World History

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

World War II posters helped to mobilize a nation. Inexpensive, accessible, and ever-present, the poster was an ideal agent for making victory the personal mission of every citizen. Government agencies, businesses, and private...

Appears in:

14 | World War II Winter 2007

History Now Essay

Photography in Nineteenth-Century America

Martha A. Sandweiss

Art, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

During the mid-nineteenth century, American commentators pronounced that new technological innovations in transportation and communications represented nothing less than the "annihilation of space and time." On steamships and...

Appears in:

10 | Nineteenth Century Technology Winter 2006

Essay

The Open Door Policy and the Boxer War: The US and China

Warren I. Cohen

By 1899, the United States had become a world power. It was not only the world’s greatest industrial nation, but in the war with Spain it had demonstrated a willingness to use its power militarily. It had acquired possessions near and...

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

Essay

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

Mary-Jo Kline

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...

Guided Readings

Guided Readings: Indian Policy

Geography, Government and Civics, Religion and Philosophy

9, 10, 11, 12

Reading 1 One [infantry] battalion...left Fort Lyon [Colorado] on the night of the 28th of November, 1864; about daybreak on the morning of the 29th of November we came in sight of the camp of friendly [Cheyenne and Arapaho] Indians.....

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....

Appears in:

32 | The Music and History of Our Times Summer 2012

Lesson Plan

The Textile Industry and the Triangle Factory Fire

Economics

9, 10, 11, 12

Overview Dramatic change characterized the rapid industrialization of nineteenth-century America. The economy, politics, society and specifically women were all affected. In the early stages of this economic revolution, manufacturing...

Lesson Plan

The Virginia Colony

9, 10

Objective In presenting to students documents dating from the earliest European contact with the Americas, teachers are faced with problems of accessibility. The language is often daunting, and the relevance for students of American...

Essay

Anti-Communism in the 1950s

Wendy Wall

In 1950, fewer than 50,000 Americans out of a total US population of 150 million were members of the Communist Party. Yet in the late 1940s and early 1950s, American fears of internal communist subversion reached a nearly hysterical...

News

Spring 2020 Online Courses: Meet the Professors for Historiography

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and Pace University are pleased to announce that registration for the Spring 2020 courses is now open for the online Master of Arts in American History for K–12 teachers affiliated with...

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

Spotlight on: Primary Source

Conscientious objectors: Madison pardons Quakers, 1816

Government and Civics

In 1816, seven Quakers in Baltimore, Maryland, petitioned President James Madison for pardons after refusing to serve in the militia or pay the exemption fee. Secretary of State James Monroe requested additional information on the men...

History Now Essay

Archaeology as History in the North Cascades Mountains

Robert R. Mierendorf

The North Cascades Mountains have a reputation as being steeper and more snow covered than most other mountains of the far western United States. Native people (also “American Indians” or “Native Americans”) thrived in these mountains...

Appears in:

49 | Excavating American History Fall 2017

Lesson Plan

Religion and the American Revolution

Religion and Philosophy

9, 10, 11, 12

Historical Background While the dominant narrative of the American Revolution focuses on its political causes, the factor of religion cannot be ignored. Many settlers came to the North American colonies seeking the freedom to practice...

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

Essay

Facing the New Millennium

Michael Flamm

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

In 1941, on the eve of Pearl Harbor, Time magazine publisher Henry Luce predicted that the twentieth century would become known as the "American Century." By many measures he was correct. During the next sixty years, the United States...

Spotlight on: Primary Source

An appeal for suffrage support, 1871

Government and Civics

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

The National Woman Suffrage and Educational Committee was formed in the spring of 1871. The Washington DC-based committee pledged to act as the “centre of all action upon Congress and the country.” The group was also dedicated to the...

History Now Essay

Home Adrift: Women and Domesticated Rail Travel

Amy G. Richter

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

In the summer of 1869 Godey’s Lady’s Book published an editorial marking the completion of the transcontinental railroad. The author praised the new "wonder of the world" and then clarified that "this great work was begun, carried on...

Appears in:

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

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...

Appears in:

13 | The Constitution Fall 2007

History Now Essay

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

Patrick Spero

Geography, World History

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...

Appears in:

34 | The Revolutionary Age Winter 2012

Program/Event

Current Fellows

Charlene J. Fletcher PhD Candidate, Department of History, Indiana University "Confined Femininity: Race, Gender, and Incarceration in Kentucky, 1865–1920" Kurt Graham Director, Harry S. Truman Presidential Library "Counting the...

News

Scholar’s Blog - Aaron Sheehan-Dean

OCTOBER 10 AND NOVEMBER 5, 1863: DAVIS TRIES TO RALLY CONFEDERATE MORALE The summer of 1863 had been a poor one for the Confederacy. Robert E. Lee’s army was not just repulsed from its invasion of Pennsylvania but bloodily beaten at...

News

Scholar’s Blog - Aaron Sheehan-Dean

History Now Essay

Labor Day: From Protest to Picnics

Joshua B. Freeman

Economics, Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

In the 1880s a surge in growth of the American labor movement led to the creation of two workers’ holidays, Labor Day and May Day. May Day soon spread abroad, as European unions and socialist groups adopted it as an occasion to...

Appears in:

4 | American National Holidays Summer 2005

Site Search

Stay up to date, and subscribe to our quarterly newsletter.