How were the ever-changing roles of women in American society chronicled?

Joseph Heller writes in his book The Feminization of Quest-Romance that “American Literature equates the very essence of what it means to be American with the essence of what it means to be male. [Thus] women’s roles are identified only in relation to the male heroes whose identities they strengthen.” It can be argued that throughout much of American history, American women had few rights or...

While American soldiers were fighting abroad, those left at home, including children, contributed to the war effort in many ways.

Although World War II wasn’t fought on US soil, its effects were deeply felt by all Americans. With a majority of the male population overseas, remaining citizens dedicated themselves to the task of keeping the country running efficiently while supporting the soldiers. Women, previously discouraged from working in industry, became the work force out of necessity.

The Founding Fathers created the Supreme Court in Article III of the Constitution of the United States. The most influential role of the Court, however, was defined later through the appeal process, in cases involving the laws of state and local legislatures and Congress. Landmark cases such as Marbury v. Madison, McCulloch v. Maryland, and others, which were decided in the first decades of the nineteenth century, established the court’s power of judicial review. This gave the appointed...

The greatest economic calamity in the history of the United States occurred in the third decade of the twentieth century. When the stock market crashed in 1929 and the economy plummeted over the next few years, the nation sunk into the most pervasive depression in American history. No one escaped the suffering that the Great Depression produced. The ranks of the suffering went well beyond those who lost everything as a direct result of the stock market crash. While millions lost their fortunes in investments on and...