Search | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

1,977 items

History Now Essay

Sylvester Graham and Antebellum Diet Reform

Cindy Lobel

"Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly Plants." So begins Michael Pollan’s 2009 book, In Defense of Food . Pollan has made a career educating Americans about the dangers of our contemporary, industrialized food supply. His book offers a...

Appears in:

30 | American Reform Movements Winter 2012

Essay

Entrepreneurs and Bankers: The Evolution of Corporate Empires

Robert W. Cherny

James J. Hill enjoyed being called "the Empire Builder," taking it as a compliment for his work as president of the Great Northern Railway. Hill’s railway company, which ran through the northern Great Plains and Pacific Northwest,...

History Now Essay

Adams v. Jackson: The Election of 1824

Edward G. Lengel

Government and Civics

James Monroe’s two terms in office as president of the United States (1817–1825) are often called the "Era of Good Feelings." The country appeared to have entered a period of strength, unity of purpose, and one-party government with...

Appears in:

33 | Electing a President Fall 2012

History Now Essay

Franklin Delano Roosevelt—Four-Term President—and the Election of 1944

Matthew Dallek

Government and Civics

When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt decided to seek a fourth term in 1944, his campaign would come to mark a major moment in the history of presidential elections for several reasons. No president had run for a fourth term prior...

Appears in:

33 | Electing a President Fall 2012

About page

Scholarly Advisory Board

Cawo Abdi, Professor of Sociology University of Minnesota Lauren Acker, History Instructor Pasadena City College Laura Rosanne Adderley, Associate Professor of African Diaspora History Tulane University Westenley Alcenat, Assistant...

History Now Essay

A Second Declaration of Independence: The 1848 Declaration of Sentiments

Sally G. McMillen

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal. [1] Upon casual reading, this phrase should sound familiar. Yet unlike what appeared in our nation’s 1776 Declaration of Independence, the 1848...

Appears in:

63 | The Declaration of Independence and the Long Struggle for Equality in America Summer 2022

History Now Essay

Polish Political Exiles and the Legacy of the American Revolution in the Antebellum US

Derek Kane O'Leary

World History

In the second of the Cabinet rap battles in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton (2015), Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton wage a fiery debate in 1796 about whether the US should honor its old treaty obligations to a newly...

Appears in:

63 | The Declaration of Independence and the Long Struggle for Equality in America Summer 2022

History Now Essay

Voices of Democracy: Jovita Idár, the Idár Family, and the Struggle against Juan Crow

Gabriela González

Government and Civics

In August 2023, the US Mint will release the Jovita Idár quarter, “the ninth coin in the American Women Quarters Program” authorized by Public Law 116–330. On its website, the Mint states that Idár’s “ideas and practices were ahead of...

Appears in:

66 | Hispanic Heroes in American History Spring 2023

Lesson Plan

The Monroe Doctrine

Government and Civics, World History

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Unit Objective This unit is part of Gilder Lehrman’s series of Common Core State Standards–based teaching resources. These units were written to enable students to understand, summarize, and analyze original texts of historical...

History Now Essay

A Place in History: Historical Perspective on Martin Luther King Jr. Day

James Oliver Horton

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

In the late fall of 1983, the US Congress passed a bill declaring the third Monday of January each year as Martin Luther King Jr. Day. President Ronald Reagan signed the bill into law on November 2, 1983, fifteen years after King’s...

Appears in:

4 | American National Holidays Summer 2005

57 | Black Voices in American Historiography Summer 2020

History Now Essay

The Emancipation Proclamation: Bill of Lading or Ticket to Freedom?

Allen C. Guelzo

Economics, Government and Civics

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

Of all the speeches, letters, and state papers he had written, Abraham Lincoln believed that the greatest of them was his Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863. With one document of only 713 words, Lincoln declared more than...

Appears in:

6 | Lincoln Winter 2005

Essay

The Americas to 1620

Christopher L. Miller

Geography, World History

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

At the end of the first millennium, most people in the Eastern Hemisphere had a firm sense of how the world was arranged, who occupied it, and how they had come to be where they were. Various sacred texts as well as long-standing folk...

Essay

The Progressive Era to the New Era, 1900-1929

Daniel T. Rodgers

Government and Civics

K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

We should not accept social life as it has "trickled down to us," the young journalist Walter Lippmann wrote soon after the twentieth century began. "We have to deal with it deliberately, devise its social organization, . . . educate...

History Now Essay

Self-Evident Truths: Black Americans and the Declaration of Independence

Leigh Fought

In 1776, as the ink on the Declaration of Independence dried, the Rev. Lemuel Haynes pointed out that Black Americans like himself lived under “much greater oppression than that which Englishmen seem so much to spurn at. I mean an...

Appears in:

67 | The Influence of the Declaration of Independence on the Civil War and Reconstruction Era Summer 2023

History Now Essay

Lemuel Haynes, Young African American Patriot of the 1770s

John Saillant

Literature, Religion and Philosophy

In 1776, Lemuel Haynes was a young veteran of the War of Independence who was envisioning his future. He had been an indentured servant from his birth in 1753 to his coming of age in 1774. After being released from indenture, he...

Appears in:

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

History Now Essay

The US Banking System: Origin, Development, and Regulation

Richard Sylla

Economics, Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Banks are among the oldest businesses in American history—the Bank of New York, for example, was founded in 1784, and as the recently renamed Bank of New York Mellon it had its 225th anniversary in 2009. The banking system is one of...

Appears in:

24 | Shaping the American Economy Summer 2010

Essay

The War for Independence

Ray Raphael

World History

On July 4, 1774, exactly two years before the United States declared independence, a patriotic club in Worcester, Massachusetts, decided that each member should have in the ready two pounds of gunpowder and twelve flints. With the...

Lesson Plan

Evaluating Lyndon B. Johnson’s Character and Efforts during the Civil Rights Era

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Background Information In 1969 Thomas Baker conducted an interview with Roy Wilkins, executive directory of the NAACP, based on Wilkins’s experiences with Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. This abridged version of the...

History Now Essay

Robber Barons or Captains of Industry?

T. J. Stiles

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

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

On February 9, 1859, Henry J. Raymond, editor of the New York Times , said something strange about Cornelius Vanderbilt. Raymond didn’t like Vanderbilt, a steamship tycoon with such a vast fleet that he was known as the Commodore,...

Appears in:

24 | Shaping the American Economy Summer 2010

About page

2022 Spring Newsletter

The Gilder Lehrman Institute welcomes you to spring with a host of new and familiar programs for teachers and students. We recount our recent events, offer news about our upcoming Lincoln Prize Ceremony and Gala, and celebrate our...

Essay

The Rise of Industrial America, 1877-1900

Richard White

Economics, Government and Civics

When in 1873 Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner entitled their co-authored novel The Gilded Age , they gave the late nineteenth century its popular name. The term reflected the combination of outward wealth and dazzle with inner...

About page

2021 Winter Newsletter

Dear Friend of the Gilder Lehrman Institute, Only 15% of eighth graders across the country are proficient in US history. Only 23% of them are competent in civics. These statistics represent a profound decline since 2014, according to...

History Now Essay

Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Maya Lin

Art

Reprinted by permission of Maya Lin from her book Boundaries (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000). It’s taken me years to be able to discuss the making of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial , partly because I needed to move past it and...

Appears in:

45 | American History in Visual Art Summer 2016

Program/Event

Past Fellows

Below is a list of all recipients of Gilder Lehrman Fellowships since the program’s founding. The Fellow’s name, home institution at the time of the fellowship, and project title are followed by the research archive and year of the...

Program/Event

Scholarly Fellowships | Past Fellows

Below is a list of all recipients of Gilder Lehrman Fellowships since the program’s founding. The fellow’s name, home institution at the time of the fellowship, and project title are followed by the research archive and year of the...

Essay

What’s That Sound? Teaching the 1960s through Popular Music

Brian Ward

Art

There’s Something Happening Here . . . The 1960s was one of the most dramatic and controversial decades in American history. Opinions about its achievements and failures continue to be divided between those who condemn the decade as...

About page

Richard Gilder

Remembering Richard Gilder (1932–2020) Richard Gilder Remembered by the Press and Other Institutions A Song from the Gilder Lehrman Collection Performed in Honor of Richard Gilder Introduction to the Richard Gilder Biography Richard...

Site Search

1,977 items

Sylvester Graham and Antebellum Diet Reform

Entrepreneurs and Bankers: The Evolution of Corporate Empires

Adams v. Jackson: The Election of 1824

Franklin Delano Roosevelt—Four-Term President—and the Election of 1944

Scholarly Advisory Board

A Second Declaration of Independence: The 1848 Declaration of Sentiments

Polish Political Exiles and the Legacy of the American Revolution in the Antebellum US

Voices of Democracy: Jovita Idár, the Idár Family, and the Struggle against Juan Crow

The Monroe Doctrine

A Place in History: Historical Perspective on Martin Luther King Jr. Day

The Emancipation Proclamation: Bill of Lading or Ticket to Freedom?

The Americas to 1620

The Progressive Era to the New Era, 1900-1929

Self-Evident Truths: Black Americans and the Declaration of Independence

Lemuel Haynes, Young African American Patriot of the 1770s

The US Banking System: Origin, Development, and Regulation

The War for Independence

Evaluating Lyndon B. Johnson’s Character and Efforts during the Civil Rights Era

Robber Barons or Captains of Industry?

2022 Spring Newsletter

The Rise of Industrial America, 1877-1900

2021 Winter Newsletter

Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Past Fellows

Scholarly Fellowships | Past Fellows

What’s That Sound? Teaching the 1960s through Popular Music

Richard Gilder

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