Search | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

1,623 items

History Now Essay

Historical Archaeology, Kingsley Plantation, and the Construction of Past Time

James M. Davidson

Archaeology is the study of the past—people and everything they were, their public acts and private hopes—or at least it is an earnest attempt to “construct” this past through a meticulous examination of material objects, the greater...

Appears in:

49 | Excavating American History Fall 2017

History Now Essay

Teaching the Revolution

Carol Berkin

Government and Civics

For most Americans, young and old, the history of the American Revolution can be summed up something like this: In 1776, all the colonists rose up in unison to rebel against a tyrannical king and the horrible burden of unfair taxes...

Appears in:

21 | The American Revolution Fall 2009

Essay

The Gilded Age

T. Jackson Lears

When I was a college student in the late 1960s, the most popular US history courses were the ones that covered the Gilded Age. They promised to illuminate the origins of urgent contemporary problems. Their canvas was broad and filled...

History Now Essay

Abraham Lincoln and Jacksonian Democracy

Sean Wilentz

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Abraham Lincoln was, for most of his political career, a highly partisan Whig. As long as the Whig Party existed, he never supported the candidate of another party. Until the late 1850s, his chief political heroes were Whigs, above...

Appears in:

18 | Abraham Lincoln in His Time and Ours Winter 2008

History Now Essay

Women in American Politics in the Twentieth Century

Sara Evans

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

At the beginning of the twentieth century, women were outsiders to the formal structures of political life—voting, serving on juries, holding elective office—and they were subject to wide-ranging discrimination that marked them as...

Appears in:

7 | Women's Suffrage Spring 2006

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

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

History Now Essay

James Wilson: Scottish Immigrant, Pennsylvania Statesman, Signer of the Declaration, and Framer of the Constitution

Jonathan Gienapp

Government and Civics

James Wilson’s impact on the founding of the United States was significant. One of only six individuals to sign both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, he helped create the nation and its enduring institutions....

Appears in:

64 | New Light on the Declaration and Its Signers Fall 2022

Essay

Facing the New Millennium

Michael Flamm

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

In 1941, on the eve of Pearl Harbor, Time magazine publisher Henry Luce predicted that the twentieth century would become known as the "American Century." By many measures he was correct. During the next sixty years, the United States...

History Now Essay

Winning the Vote: A History of Voting Rights

Steven Mintz

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Voting Rights on the Eve of the Revolution The basic principle that governed voting in colonial America was that voters should have a "stake in society." Leading colonists associated democracy with disorder and mob rule, and believed...

Appears in:

1 | Elections Fall 2004

Site Search

1,623 items

Historical Archaeology, Kingsley Plantation, and the Construction of Past Time

Teaching the Revolution

The Gilded Age

Abraham Lincoln and Jacksonian Democracy

Women in American Politics in the Twentieth Century

Entrepreneurs and Bankers: The Evolution of Corporate Empires

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

James Wilson: Scottish Immigrant, Pennsylvania Statesman, Signer of the Declaration, and Framer of the Constitution

Facing the New Millennium

Winning the Vote: A History of Voting Rights

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