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History Now Essay

Race and the American Constitution: A Struggle toward National Ideals

James Oliver Horton

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

James O. Horton was the Benjamin Banneker Professor Emeritus of American Studies and History at George Washington University and historian emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. He edited,...

Appears in:

13 | The Constitution Fall 2007

57 | Black Voices in American Historiography Summer 2020

History Now Essay

The Filibuster King: The Strange Career of William Walker, the Most Dangerous International Criminal of the Nineteenth Century

T. J. Stiles

Economics, Geography, Government and Civics, World History

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

On November 8, 1855, on the central plaza of the Nicaraguan city of Granada, a line of riflemen shot General Ponciano Corral, the senior general of the Conservative government. Curiously, the members of the firing squad hailed from...

Appears in:

20 | High Crimes and Misdemeanors Summer 2009

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

Essay

The Origins of Slavery

Ira Berlin

Geography, World History

5, 6, 7, 8

African American life in the United States has been framed by migrations, forced and free. A forced migration from Africa—the transatlantic slave trade—carried black people to the Americas. A second forced migration—the internal slave...

Essay

Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-1877

Eric Foner

Government and Civics, World History

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

In 1877, soon after retiring as president of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant, embarked with his wife on a two-year tour of the world. At almost every location, he was greeted as a hero. In England, the son of the Duke of...

History Now Essay

Female Trouble: Andrew Jackson versus the Ladies of Washington

Catherine Allgor

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Andrew Jackson was mad. It was February 1829, a wintry day in Washington, DC, and President-elect Jackson was in a fury about the public’s reaction to his Cabinet announcements. To be fair, Jackson was already angry when he arrived in...

Appears in:

22 | Andrew Jackson and His World Winter 2009

History Now Essay

The New Deal, Then and Now

Alan Brinkley

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

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Well before Barack Obama’s election in 2008, the New Deal was emerging as an instructive model for those trying to understand, and address, what is now known as the "worst financial crisis since the 1930s." But is the New Deal in fact...

Appears in:

19 | The Great Depression Spring 2009

Essay

America the Newcomer: Claiming the Louisiana Purchase

Elliott West

Geography

The Lewis and Clark expedition is rightly considered one of the great American stories. In May of 1804 Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set off by keelboat up the Missouri River with thirty-one men, the "Corps of Discovery," on an...

History Now Essay

A History of the Thanksgiving Holiday

Catherine Clinton

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Thanksgiving stands as one of the most American of holidays, an autumnal ritual fixed in the imagination as honoring the piety and perseverance of the nation’s earliest arrivals during colonial days. But what were the origins of this...

Appears in:

4 | American National Holidays Summer 2005

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

The Years of Magical Thinking: Explaining the Salem Witchcraft Crisis

Mary Beth Norton

Geography, Government and Civics, Literature, Religion and Philosophy

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Most Americans’ knowledge of the seventeenth century comes from semi-mythical events such as the First Thanksgiving at Plymouth, Pocahontas purportedly saving Captain John Smith from execution in early Virginia, and Salem witchcraft....

Appears in:

20 | High Crimes and Misdemeanors Summer 2009

Essay

The Age of Jefferson and Madison

Peter S. Onuf

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison both played important roles in the era of the American Revolution. Jefferson was the lead author of the Declaration of Independence that launched the American experiment in republican government;...

History Now Essay

Anti-Slavery before the Revolutionary War

Sylvia R. Frey

Religion and Philosophy

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Anti-slavery is almost as old as slavery itself. Indeed it could easily be argued that the first enslaved person who jumped overboard or led an on-ship rebellion on the Middle Passage launched the anti-slavery movement. The modern...

Appears in:

5 | Abolition Fall 2005

History Now Essay

The Culture of Congress in the Age of Jackson

Joanne B. Freeman

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

During an 1841 debate in the House of Representatives, Edward Stanly of North Carolina said something derogatory about Virginian Henry Wise. A few minutes later, Wise walked over to Stanly’s seat. After some "earnest, and excited...

Appears in:

22 | Andrew Jackson and His World Winter 2009

News

Inside the Vault: Romeo Smith: Slave, Soldier, Freeman

Read a transcript of the certificate and examine an African American’s pay warrant from the Revolutionary War .

News

Inside the Vault: An African American Protests the Fugitive Slave Law, 1850

Read the transcript of Henry Weeden’s note and read an essay about abolition and antebellum reform .

News

Happy Birthday George Washington: On This Day, 1732

George Washington was born on February 22, 1732, in Virginia. To celebrate, enjoy a performance of "One Last Time" from the Broadway musical Hamilton , performed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Christopher Jackson, Sydney James Harcourt, and...

News

An "Autograph and Something More" from Frederick Douglass

Between 1855 and 1886, Franklin E. McNear collected autographs in his leather-bound, red autograph book . Among the eighty-four signatures are notable historic figures like P.T. Barnum, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Frederick Douglass ....

News

"Bookending" the Twentieth Century

The twentieth century was packed with socio-economic changes in American society. It is often difficult to understand just how different our country was at the beginning of the century. Use the infographic below as you are teaching...

News

Counting Down to Hamilton

There are only six short weeks until the first student matinee of Hamilton on April 13! To celebrate the launch of the program, we are excited to give you a series of posts that offer insight into the life of Alexander Hamilton. Every...

News

Interactive Infographic: Women’s Suffrage through 1920

Looking to celebrate Women’s History Month by teaching women’s suffrage? Take a peek at our new infographic map and explore which states did (and did not) pass women’s suffrage before the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified in 1920....

News

The Boston Massacre: On This Day, March 5

On March 5, 1770, tensions in the American colonies culminated with an armed skirmish between British troops and American colonists in Boston. Although the American Revolution did not begin in earnest until five years later, the...

News

Inside the Vault: The "Long S"

Take a closer look at the first draft of the US Constitution to see an example of the "long S" in print.

News

Remembering "Princess Alice" Roosevelt

Many American presidents are remembered for the landmark laws, amendments, or executive acts they passed while in office. We remember President Lyndon B. Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, or President Franklin D. Roosevelt...

News

Counting Down to Hamilton: Week 5

There are now five weeks until the first student matinee of Hamilton ! This week, we’re continuing our blog series on Alexander Hamilton with Amtrak’s Arrive magazine—the March/April 2016 issue features a story on the student ticket...

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