Search | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

1,623 items

Lesson Plan

Abraham Lincoln on Slavery and Race

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

Background Slavery played a prominent role in America’s political, social, and economic history in the antebellum era. The "peculiar institution" was at the forefront of discussions ranging from the future of the nation’s economy to...

History Now Essay

Welcome to the Inaugural Issue of History Now

Carol Berkin

The Gilder Lehrman Institute’s quarterly American history online journal. The journal’s primary mission: to promote the study of American history with articles from noted historians as well as lesson plans, resource guides, links to...

Appears in:

1 | Elections Fall 2004

About page

DIGITAL VERSION OF CELEBRATED HAMILTON EDUCATION PROGRAM TO BE OFFERED FREE TO SCHOOLS NATIONWIDE

HAMILTON and The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History Bring Hands-On History to Schools NEW YORK, NY (August 14) -- The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History (GLI) and HAMILTON today announced the nationwide launch of a...

Essay

The New Nation, 1783–1815

Alan Taylor

Government and Civics

The leaders of the American Revolution made three great gambles. First, they sought independence from the powerful British Empire, becoming the first colonies in the Americas to revolt and seek independence from their mother empire....

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

Sitting Bull: Last of the Great Chiefs

Robert M. Utley

Sitting Bull was the last of the great Indian chiefs to surrender his free way of life and settle on a government reservation. He belonged to the Hunkpapa tribe of the Lakota Sioux. The Lakotas numbered seven tribes, loosely...

Appears in:

59 | American Indians in Leadership Winter 2021

History Now Essay

From The Editor

Carol Berkin

Many of us who grew up in the decades of the Cold War have memories of participating in air raid drills in school, watching Joseph McCarthy and his anti-communist hearings on the grainy black and white of our televisions, waiting...

Appears in:

27 | The Cold War Spring 2011

News

Announcing the 2022 Frederick Douglass Book Prize Finalists

We are pleased to announce the finalists for the twenty-fourth annual Frederick Douglass Book Prize, one of the most coveted awards for the study of the African American experience. Jointly sponsored by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of...

Lesson Plan

Women and the Civil War

9, 10, 11, 12

Introduction The growth of manufacturing in the decades prior to the Civil War transformed the country. The nation experienced the appearance of cities, manufacturing, and a commitment to wage labor at the same time as the expansion...

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

History Now Essay

The Revolutionary Era West, before and after American Independence

Jessica Choppin Roney

Geography, Government and Civics, World History

In December 1772, a year before angry colonists heaved chests of East India tea into Boston Harbor, the British government seemed on the cusp of creating a new North American colony. Named “Vandalia,” in honor of Queen Charlotte’s...

Appears in:

69 | The Reception and Impact of the Declaration of Independence, 1776-1826 Winter 2023

About page

GLI Now - Fall 2017 Newsletter

2017 Teacher Seminars: Wrap-up and Highlights The Gilder Lehrman Institute’s Teacher Seminars , which have been held each summer since 1996, are the most popular professional development opportunity offered by our organization. Held...

History Now Essay

The Impact of Horse Culture

Elliott West

Economics, Geography

For all the calamities that came in the long run, European contact at first offered American Indian peoples many opportunities and advantages. Old World technologies provided a range of trade goods that brought vast improvements to...

Appears in:

28 | American Indians Summer 2011

History Now Essay

A New Era of American Indian Autonomy

Ned Blackhawk

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

The American West is home to the majority of America’s Indian Nations, and, within the past generation, many of these groups have achieved unprecedented political and economic gains. Numerous reservation communities now manage...

Appears in:

9 | The American West Fall 2006

Spotlight on: Primary Source

The Doctrine of Discovery, 1493

Geography, Religion and Philosophy, World History

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

The Papal Bull "Inter Caetera," issued by Pope Alexander VI on May 4, 1493, played a central role in the Spanish conquest of the New World. The document supported Spain’s strategy to ensure its exclusive right to the lands...

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 Jewish Health Professionals of Cincinnati

Frederic Krome

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

In studies of the significance of the Cincinnati Jewish community within the wider context of American Jewish history, the development of the Reform movement, and Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise’s oversight in establishing the iconic Plum...

Appears in:

71 | The Jewish Legacy in American History Summer 2024

About page

George Washington Prize Nominees Announced

Special Author Discussion and Book Signing at Mount Vernon, August 24 Mount Vernon, VA, July 20, 2023 —Four books published in 2022 by the nation’s most prominent historians were recently named finalists for the George Washington...

About page

Hamilton and the Gilder Lehrman Institute Announce 2024 EduHam Winners from Middle and High Schools across the Nation

The annual educational initiative empowers students to explore history through original performances, with the added opportunity to see Hamilton on Broadway NEW YORK – February 28, 2024 – Hamilton and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of...

Essay

Exploration

Felipe Fernández-Armesto and Benjamin Sacks

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

We often speak of America as "unknown," except to its own inhabitants, in the Middle Ages. But so, in a sense, was Europe, which hardly figured on the maps and in the calculations of the immensely richer, more populous, and...

Essay

Lincoln

Allen C. Guelzo

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

No one seemed less well-cast for the role of reformer, in an age of reform, than Abraham Lincoln. To begin with, he was a stranger, emotionally and intellectually, to evangelical Christianity, the great engine of reform in the...

History Now Essay

Lincoln and Abolitionism

Douglas L. Wilson

Abraham Lincoln immortalized himself in American history by the role that he played in abolishing the institution of slavery, but he arrived at this distinction only after a long career of opposition to abolitionism. This at first...

Appears in:

6 | Lincoln Winter 2005

37 | Gettysburg: Insights and Perspectives Fall 2013

Essay

Frederick Douglass: From Slavery to Freedom

Steven Mintz

Government and Civics

Frederick Douglass was one of the first fugitive slaves to speak out publicly against slavery. On the morning of August 12, 1841, he stood up at an anti-slavery meeting on Nantucket Island. With great power and eloquence, he described...

Lesson Plan

Railroads: The "Engine" to Promote National Unity and Economic Growth

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

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Objectives Students will examine, explain, and evaluate a variety of literary and visual primary sources that describe and depict the development and impact of railroads on sectional relationships, national unity, and economic growth...

History Now Essay

The Marshall and Taney Courts: Continuities and Changes

R. B. Bernstein

Economics, Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Though the first holders of the job thought it more a burden than a position of honor or power, the office of chief justice of the United States has a pivotal role in the American constitutional system, thanks mainly to John Marshall ...

Appears in:

15 | The Supreme Court Spring 2008

Site Search

1,623 items

Abraham Lincoln on Slavery and Race

Welcome to the Inaugural Issue of History Now

DIGITAL VERSION OF CELEBRATED HAMILTON EDUCATION PROGRAM TO BE OFFERED FREE TO SCHOOLS NATIONWIDE

The New Nation, 1783–1815

Women of the West

Sitting Bull: Last of the Great Chiefs

From The Editor

Announcing the 2022 Frederick Douglass Book Prize Finalists

Women and the Civil War

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

The Revolutionary Era West, before and after American Independence

GLI Now - Fall 2017 Newsletter

The Impact of Horse Culture

A New Era of American Indian Autonomy

The Doctrine of Discovery, 1493

Empire Building

The Jewish Health Professionals of Cincinnati

George Washington Prize Nominees Announced

Hamilton and the Gilder Lehrman Institute Announce 2024 EduHam Winners from Middle and High Schools across the Nation

Exploration

Lincoln

Lincoln and Abolitionism

Frederick Douglass: From Slavery to Freedom

Railroads: The "Engine" to Promote National Unity and Economic Growth

The Marshall and Taney Courts: Continuities and Changes

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