Search | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

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History Now Essay

Making (White Male) Democracy: Suffrage Expansion in the United States from the Revolution to the Civil War

Stuart M. Blumin

Government and Civics

There is perhaps no theme more central to our traditional understanding of American history than the expansion of democracy. And in that long story of democratization we habitually regard as our peculiar contribution to the world,...

Appears in:

51 | The Evolution of Voting Rights Summer 2018

History Now Essay

The Dillingham Commission and the “Immigration Question,” 1907−1921

Robert Zeidel

Government and Civics

The Dillingham Commission played a pivotal role in the formation of American immigration policy, notably the establishment of general exclusion as an overarching principle. Created by Congress in 1907 as a compromise between...

Appears in:

52 | The History of US Immigration Laws Fall 2018

History Now Essay

Hometown Societies in the New World: Jewish Landsmanshaftn and Americanization

Daniel Soyer

Religion and Philosophy

Jacob Sholts, a Jewish immigrant from the Russian Empire, wandered dejectedly through the streets of New York in 1904. Sholts, who had fled Russia to avoid military service during the Russo-Japanese War, could not keep a job. He felt...

Appears in:

71 | The Jewish Legacy in American History Summer 2024

History Now Essay

The Proclamation, Reading, and Immediate Reception of the Declaration of Independence

John R. Vile

Government and Civics

The Declaration of Independence, which the Second Continental Congress adopted on July 4, 1776, is America’s birth certificate, and patriots greeted it with joy similar to that surrounding the birth of a child. The Declaration...

Appears in:

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

News

2022 George Washington Prize Awarded to Bruce A. Ragsdale for “Washington at the Plow”

Bruce A. Ragsdale has been awarded the 2022 George Washington Prize for his work Washington at the Plow: The Founding Farmer and the Question of Slavery . The annual award recognizes the past year’s best works on the nation’s founding...