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1,474 items

History Now Essay

Patriotism Crosses the Color Line: African Americans in World War II

Clarence Taylor

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Although African Americans have been the victims of racial oppression throughout the history of the United States, they have always supported the nation, especially during wartime. When World War II erupted, over 2.5 million black men...

Appears in:

14 | World War II Winter 2007

57 | Black Voices in American Historiography Summer 2020

History Now Essay

"The Chinese Question"—Unresolved and Ongoing for Americans

John Kuo Wei Tchen

Government and Civics

In 1882, the United States Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act—the nation’s first race-based immigration law that was not effectively repealed until 1965–1968. The act exempted Chinese merchants, diplomats, scholars, and...

Appears in:

42 | The Role of China in US History Spring 2015

History Now Essay

Lincoln’s Civil Religion

George C. Rable

Government and Civics, Religion and Philosophy

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

His long-time law partner William Herndon once described Abraham Lincoln as "the most shut-mouthed man who ever lived." That phrase wonderfully captured an important characteristic of a politician who had surprisingly few friends and...

Appears in:

History Now Essay

The WPA: Antidote to the Great Depression?

Nick Taylor

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

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

When President Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in March 1933, estimates of the number of jobless workers in the United States ranged from thirteen million to as high as fifteen million—a quarter of the working population. Every...

Appears in:

The Great Depression

History Now Essay

The Great 1927 Mississippi River Flood

John M. Barry

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

In the latter part of August 1926, the sky darkened over much of the central United States and a heavy and persistent rain began to fall. Rain pelted first Nebraska, South Dakota, Kansas, and Oklahoma, then edged eastward into Iowa...

Appears in:

40 | Disasters in Modern American History Fall 2014