Site Search

57,960 items

About page

Grady Durham

Grady Durham founded Monticello Associates in 1992. He leads the firm’s efforts in the areas of asset allocation, investment policy development, investment manager evaluation, and performance measurement. A frequent speaker around the...

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...

Appears in:

31 | Perspectives on America’s Wars Spring 2012

Guided Readings

Guided Readings: World War II

Economics, Government and Civics, World History

Reading 1 It seems to be unfortunately true that the epidemic of world lawlessness is spreading. When an epidemic of physical disease starts to spread, the community approves and joins in a quarantine of the patients in order to...

Program/Event

Civil War Essay Contest Winners 2000-2010

2010 Winners High School Division First Prize Jacob Fletcher , Eleanor Roosevelt High School, Greenbelt, MD "The Postman: Joseph William Briggs and the Free City Delivery System" Second Prize Geoffrey Andrews , West Morris Central...

About page

Announcing the 2021 Lincoln Prize Finalists

Gettysburg College and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History have announced the finalists for the 2021 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize. They are • Alice Baumgartner , South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to...

News

Summer 2021 Registration Now Open for the Pace–Gilder Lehrman MA in American History

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and Pace University are pleased to announce that registration for Summer 2021 courses is now open for the Pace–Gilder Lehrman MA in American History . The online program for K–12...

History Now Essay

D-Day or Operation Overlord, June 6, 1944

Antony Beevor

World History

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

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...

Appears in:

31 | Perspectives on America’s Wars Spring 2012

History Now Essay

Fighting for Democracy in World War I—Overseas and Over Here

Maurice Jackson

Maurice Jackson is Associate Professor of History and African American Studies at Georgetown University. He is the author of Let This Voice Be Heard: Anthony Benezet, Father of Atlantic Abolitionism (2009), and the co-editor of...

Appears in:

57 | Black Voices in American Historiography Summer 2020

46 | African American Soldiers Fall 2016

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

News

Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military History Event Features Two Military Historians in Dialogue

On Monday, November 26, the Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military History was awarded to Cathal Nolan for his book The Allure of Battle: A History of How Wars Have Been Won and Lost (Oxford University Press, 2017) at the New-York...

News

Meet the Gilder Lehrman Pop-Up History School Teachers

In these challenging times, we know that everyone is trying their best to keep students engaged in learning. As the leading nonprofit organization dedicated to K–12 history education, the Gilder Lehrman Institute feels a...

History Now Essay

Postwar Taiwan and the USA

Denny Roy

World History

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Taiwan has been a showcase of liberalization under American encouragement, but also the primary irritant in US-China relations. A large island with a population of twenty-three million located about 100 to 150 miles off the coast of...

Appears in:

42 | The Role of China in US History Spring 2015

Spotlight on: Primary Source

George Washington from Valley Forge on the urgent need for men and supplies, 1777

George Washington’s words in this letter represent a stirring plea for help at the darkest moment of the American Revolution. As few other documents do, this letter illustrates Valley Forge as an icon of American perseverance and...

History Now Essay

From the Editor

Carol Berkin

The Constitution does not spell out the duties or define the powers of a president’s spouse, yet America’s "first ladies" have, from the beginning of our nation, played key roles as public figures. They have set precedents,...

Appears in:

35 | America’s First Ladies Spring 2013

History Now Essay

The World War II Home Front

Allan M. Winkler

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

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

World War II had a profound impact on the United States. Although no battles occurred on the American mainland, the war affected all phases of American life. It required unprecedented efforts to coordinate strategy and tactics with...

Appears in:

14 | World War II Winter 2007

History Now Essay

African American Women and the Nineteenth Amendment

Sharon Harley

Government and Civics

Sharon Harley is Associate Professor and former Chair of the African American Studies Department at the University of Maryland, College Park. She and historian Rosalyn Terborg-Penn co-edited the pioneer anthology The Afro-American...

Appears in:

57 | Black Voices in American Historiography Summer 2020

56 | The Nineteenth Amendment and Beyond Spring 2020

Lesson Plan

Alice Paul: Suffragist and Agitator

9, 10, 11, 12

Background The American women’s suffrage movement has always been identified with its two founders, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, whose strong, enthusiastic leadership defined the movement. When they retired from active...

History Now Essay

From the Editor

Carol Berkin

If the Civil War is the most significant event of our national history, the Battle of Gettysburg is surely its most memorable moment. For this issue of History Now, we asked our contributors to provide novel perspectives and new...

Appears in:

37 | Gettysburg: Insights and Perspectives Fall 2013

History Now Essay

FDR’s Court-Packing Plan: A Study in Irony

Richard G. Menaker

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

The Great Depression of the 1930s was the nation’s grimmest economic crisis since the founding of the American republic. After the 1932 elections, Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced a series of innovative remedies—his New Deal—but the...

Appears in:

15 | The Supreme Court Spring 2008

History Now Essay

"I, Too": Langston Hughes’s Afro-Whitmanian Affirmation

Steven Tracy

Literature

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

To read the text and hear the poem click here. Whatever we say, whatever we write, whatever we do, we never act alone. Just as John Donne meditated upon the notion that "no man is an island," so, too, in the twentieth century did T.S....

Appears in:

39 | American Poets, American History Spring 2014

Lesson Plan

Lincoln’s First and Second Inaugural Addresses

Government and Civics

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

Objective This lesson on President Lincoln’s two inaugural addresses is part of Gilder Lehrman’s series of Common Core State Standards–based units. These units enable students to understand, summarize, and analyze original texts of...

History Now Essay

The Vietnam War and the My Lai Massacre

George Herring

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...

Appears in:

31 | Perspectives on America’s Wars Spring 2012

History Now Essay

Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy

Jeremi Suri

World History

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

Henry Kissinger is one of the most controversial figures to emerge from the Cold War. He participated as a soldier, scholar, and statesman in many of the most significant policy debates of the period. He acted as an intellectual,...

Appears in:

27 | The Cold War Spring 2011

History Now Essay

From the Editor

Carol Berkin

To celebrate the launch of Gilder Lehrman’s new website, we at History Now thought it appropriate to provide readers with a special, expanded issue. We chose for our topic one of the central themes in our national history: the causes...

Appears in:

31 | Perspectives on America’s Wars Spring 2012

History Now Essay

From the Editor

Carol Berkin

It is a rare war movie or novel that does not include a mail call scene. News from home, packages filled with cookies or favorite foods, drawings by sons or daughters folded in with letters from husbands, wives, or family members...

Appears in:

43 | Wartime Memoirs and Letters from the American Revolution to Vietnam Fall 2015

Site Search

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