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History Now Essay

Amateurism and Jim Thorpe at the Fifth Olympiad

Kate Buford

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

Thorpe’s deception and subsequent confession deals amateur sport in America the hardest blow it has ever had to take and disarranges the scheme of amateur athletics the world over. New York Times , January 28, 1913 The early years of...

Appears in:

23 | Turning Points in American Sports Spring 2010

History Now Essay

Cold War, Warm Hearth

Elaine Tyler May

In the summer of 1959, a young couple married and spent their honeymoon in a fallout shelter. Life magazine featured the "sheltered honeymoon" with a photograph of the duo smiling on their lawn, surrounded by dozens of canned goods...

Appears in:

27 | The Cold War Spring 2011

History Now Essay

Medical Advances in Nineteenth-Century America

Bert Hansen

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

We live in an age when there seems to be a medical breakthrough in the headlines every few days, when new discoveries are immediately—and sometimes prematurely—put into practice. It is easy for us, therefore, to assume that this same...

Appears in:

10 | Nineteenth Century Technology Winter 2006

About page

Julian H. Robertson, Jr.

Julian H. Robertson, Jr., an investor, environmentalist, and philanthropist, was the chairman and chief executive officer of Tiger Management, LLC. Robertson built Tiger into one of the world’s largest hedge funds with capital of more...

Guided Readings

Guided Readings: The Farmers' Revolt

Economics, Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12

Reading 1 For our business interests, we desire to bring producers and consumers, farmers and manufacturers into the most direct and friendly relations possible. Hence we must dispense with a surplus of middlemen, not that we are...

Lesson Plan

The Transcontinental Railroad: Interpreting Images

Art

10, 11, 12

Objectives Students will be able to apply the distinction between inferring (inference) and implying (implication). analyze primary source illustrations, including paintings, political cartoons, and promotional posters. Essential...

History Now Essay

From the Editor

Carol Berkin

Hamilton! This is his moment. After years of being overlooked when Americans named the members of that pantheon known as "the Founding Fathers," Alexander Hamilton has finally become a star. Literally. It took a talented young rapper...

Appears in:

44 | Alexander Hamilton in the American Imagination Winter 2016

About page

Luis A. Miranda, Jr.

Luis A. Miranda, Jr., has almost four decades of experience as a leader in the public and private sectors. A native of Puerto Rico, Miranda was director of field services and research at the National Action Council for Minorities in...

About page

John L. Nau, III

John L. Nau, III, is chairman and chief executive officer of Silver Eagle Distributors, LP, the nation’s largest distributor of Anheuser-Busch products. Silver Eagle employs more than 1,400 people who serve sixteen counties in Texas...

History Now Essay

Why They Marched: Rank and File Perspectives on the Women’s Suffrage Movement

Susan Ware

In 1914, a Massachusetts woman named Claiborne Catlin decided to ride across the state on horseback to rally support for women’s suffrage. All of her personal belongings, including a khaki jacket and divided skirt donated by Filene’s...

Appears in:

56 | The Nineteenth Amendment and Beyond Spring 2020

Spotlight on: Primary Source

John Philip Sousa critiques modern music, 1930

4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

John Philip Sousa (1854–1932), an American composer of classical music, served as the director of the United States Marine Band from 1880 to 1892. During Sousa’s time as leader of "The President’s Own," as the band was called, he...

About page

William Poorvu

William J. Poorvu has had a distinguished career as an investor, professor, and civic leader. Bill was the managing partner in a number of private real estate companies. From 1963 to 1982 he was the cofounder, vice-chair, and...

History Now Essay

From the Editor

Carol Berkin

Everything that American children of my generation knew—or thought they knew—about Indians, or Native Americans, came from Saturday afternoon cowboy and Indian movies. We knew that they talked funny; they all lived in teepees; they...

Appears in:

28 | American Indians Summer 2011

History Now Essay

The Columbian Exchange

Alfred W. Crosby

Economics, Geography, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, World History

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

Millions of years ago, continental drift carried the Old World and New Worlds apart, splitting North and South America from Eurasia and Africa. That separation lasted so long that it fostered divergent evolution; for instance, the...

Appears in:

12 | The Age Of Exploration Summer 2007

History Now Essay

The First Generation: America’s Women Voters, 1776–1807

Marcela Micucci

Most histories of women gaining the right to vote in the United States begin in July of 1848, when hundreds of activists gathered in Seneca Falls to hold the first women’s rights convention and sign the Declaration of Sentiments. The...

Appears in:

56 | The Nineteenth Amendment and Beyond Spring 2020

History Now Essay

From the Editor

Carol Berkin

Sharks raining down on Los Angeles, zombies menacing their neighbors, strange aliens invading earth’s cities, prehistoric creatures chasing shipwrecked travelers . . . Americans thrill to stories of disaster. Whether man-made or...

Appears in:

40 | Disasters in Modern American History Fall 2014

History Now Essay

From The Editor

Carol Berkin

The desire to reform and even to perfect society is as American as apple pie. From the Puritans’ determination to create "a city upon a hill," to the utopian communities of the early nineteenth century, to the communes created by...

Appears in:

30 | American Reform Movements Winter 2012

News

Lincoln Prize Ceremony Celebrates 2020 and 2021 Winners on April 19

Please join us on April 19 for the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize ceremony. One of the most prestigious awards for the study of Abraham Lincoln, the American Civil War soldier, or the American Civil War era, this $50,000 prize is...

History Now Essay

Suggested Resources on Desert Storm from the Archivist

Mary-Jo Kline

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...

Appears in:

31 | Perspectives on America’s Wars Spring 2012

Spotlight on: Primary Source

The Stamp Act, 1765

Economics, Government and Civics

On March 22, 1765, the British Parliament passed the “Stamp Act” to help pay for British troops stationed in the colonies during the Seven Years’ War. The act required the colonists to pay a tax, represented by a stamp, on various...

History Now Essay

Magellan: Missing in Action

Laurence Bergreen

Geography, Literature, World History

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Ferdinand Magellan, celebrated as the first circumnavigator, has long been the orphan of history. Although he did not survive his famous voyage, Magellan became both an icon of exploration and an outcast—disowned by his native...

Appears in:

12 | The Age Of Exploration Summer 2007

History Now Essay

Transcontinental Railroads: Compressing Time and Space

Richard White

Economics, Geography, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Many of our modern clichés about the impact of technology, particularly about the consequences of the Internet and telecommunications, first appeared as clichés about nineteenth-century railroads, particularly the transcontinental...

Appears in:

10 | Nineteenth Century Technology Winter 2006

History Now Essay

Ely S. Parker (Donehogawa): Civil War Hero, Ethnologist, Political Leader

Bruce E. Johansen

After 1800, the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy, like most Native American tribes, faced a long struggle against destruction of their land bases, cultures, and livelihoods. These struggles also spawned revival movements, one of...

Appears in:

59 | American Indians in Leadership Winter 2021

History Now Essay

Everyone’s Backyard: The Love Canal Chemical Disaster

Amy M. Hay

Government and Civics, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

It all started quietly. There were no alerts, no sirens, no evacuation plans, no reports from Jim Cantore on the Weather Channel. Most people living in the LaSalle neighborhood of Niagara Falls, New York, first heard about problems in...

Appears in:

40 | Disasters in Modern American History Fall 2014

News

The Pierce Butler Papers from the US Constitutional Convention

This archive of twenty-six documents was compiled by Pierce Butler when he served as one of South Carolina’s delegates to the US Constitutional Convention in 1787. It includes the printed first and second drafts of the Constitution;...

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