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History Now Essay

From the Editor

Carol Berkin

Jewish Americans have made contributions to American society that far exceed their percentage of our country’s population. This is a minority culture that has touched every aspect of American society, from the arts, to medicine and...

Appears in:

71 | The Jewish Legacy in American History Summer 2024

History Now Essay

"If Ever Two Were One": Anne Bradstreet's "To My Dear and Loving Husband"

Charlotte Gordon

Literature

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Anne Bradstreet is famous for being the first American poet. But she did not think of herself as either "first" or "American." She did not even think of herself as a poet. We would call her a Puritan, a term adopted by their enemies...

Appears in:

39 | American Poets, American History Spring 2014

History Now Essay

Every Citizen a Soldier: World War II Posters on the American Home Front

William L. Bird Jr. and Harry Rubenstein

Art, Government and Civics, World History

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

World War II posters helped to mobilize a nation. Inexpensive, accessible, and ever-present, the poster was an ideal agent for making victory the personal mission of every citizen. Government agencies, businesses, and private...

Appears in:

14 | World War II Winter 2007

History Now Essay

The Role of Jewish Americans in the Civil Rights Movement

Cheryl Greenberg

American Jews played an outsized role in the Civil Rights Movement, both in number and prominence. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Rabbi Joachim Prinz spoke at the 1963 March on Washington. Of...

Appears in:

71 | The Jewish Legacy in American History Summer 2024

History Now Essay

The Jewish Imprint on American Musical Theater

Elizabeth Wollman

Art

Long celebrated as one of the most quintessentially American of entertainment genres, Broadway musicals delight audiences with glitz, glitter, and polish; send them home with at least a glimmer of hope; and celebrate America’s promise...

Appears in:

71 | The Jewish Legacy in American History Summer 2024

History Now Essay

The Jewish Health Professionals of Cincinnati

Frederic Krome

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

In studies of the significance of the Cincinnati Jewish community within the wider context of American Jewish history, the development of the Reform movement, and Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise’s oversight in establishing the iconic Plum...

Appears in:

71 | The Jewish Legacy in American History Summer 2024

History Now Essay

Jewish Athletes and the Challenges of American Sports

Jeffrey S. Gurock

The world of American sports has long offered the athletically inclined Jew with grand opportunities for achievement, acceptance, and even glory within this country’s society. But the road to success on the track, in stadiums, or in...

Appears in:

71 | The Jewish Legacy in American History Summer 2024

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

Alexander Hamilton and the Civic Status of Jews in the Early Republic

Andrew Porwancher

Government and Civics, Religion and Philosophy

“I fear prepossessions are strongly against us,” Alexander Hamilton confided to his beloved wife, Eliza. “But we must try to overcome them.” That day, February 5, 1800, marked the beginning of a high-stakes trial in which Hamilton...

Appears in:

71 | The Jewish Legacy in American History Summer 2024

History Now Essay

Exiles by the Streams of Babylon: Newport Jews in the Colonial Era

Michael Hoberman

Newport, Rhode Island, wears its colonial past like a badge of honor. Visitors to its historic district encounter numerous plaques, markers, and monuments as they wend the town’s narrow and cobblestoned streets. As contemporary...

Appears in:

71 | The Jewish Legacy in American History Summer 2024

History Now Essay

American Jewish Origins, 1654-1820

Hasia Diner

Religion and Philosophy

A year after his inauguration as president, George Washington visited the Newport, Rhode Island Jewish Congregation, Jeshuat Israel, in 1790. He went in response to a letter he had received from the leaders of that synagogue as well...

Appears in:

71 | The Jewish Legacy in American History Summer 2024

History Now Essay

"People Get Ready": Music and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s

Brian Ward

Government and Civics

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

Few sights or sounds conjure up the passion and purposefulness of the Southern Civil Rights Movement as powerfully as the freedom songs that provided a stirring musical accompaniment to the campaign for racial justice and equality in...

Appears in:

8 | The Civil Rights Movement Summer 2006

History Now Essay

American Independence and the Spanish Navy

Manuel Lucena-Giraldo

For the ministers in charge of the Spanish empire, the outbreak of the American Revolution was nothing short of unthinkable. In 1776, the rebellion of American colonists against Spain’s quintessential enemy, the British empire, was...

Appears in:

68 | The Role of Spain in the American Revolution Fall 2023

History Now Essay

From the Editor

Carol Berkin

Most Americans are familiar with the role leading Frenchmen played in the story of the American Revolution. They admire the young and idealistic Marquis de Lafayette, scorn the wily peace treaty negotiator the Comte de Vergennes, and...

Appears in:

68 | The Role of Spain in the American Revolution Fall 2023

History Now Essay

Race and the American Constitution: A Struggle toward National Ideals

James Oliver Horton

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

James O. Horton was the Benjamin Banneker Professor Emeritus of American Studies and History at George Washington University and historian emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. He edited,...

Appears in:

13 | The Constitution Fall 2007

57 | Black Voices in American Historiography Summer 2020

History Now Essay

When the Past Speaks to the Present: Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings

Annette Gordon-Reed

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

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

Annette Gordon-Reed is the Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History and a professor of history at Harvard University. Her books include The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (2008), which received the Pulitzer...

Appears in:

2 | Primary Sources on Slavery Winter 2004

57 | Black Voices in American Historiography Summer 2020

History Now Essay

Dora Dougherty Strother McKeown, Women Airforce Service Pilot in World War II

Katherine Sharp Landdeck

When Dora Dougherty Strother McKeown was just a kid she couldn’t wait for Sunday. For every Sunday her entire family would climb into their old Oakland motor car and drive to the airport to spend the day watching planes fly. It had...

Appears in:

70 | World War II: Portraits of Service Spring 2024

History Now Essay

The Life and Death of Roger Romine: A Tuskegee Airman Gone Too Soon

Lisa Bratton

The Tuskegee Airmen were an elite group of African American pilots and support personnel who fought in World War II. Their relevance in the African American struggle for equality and respect cannot be overstated. During World War II,...

Appears in:

70 | World War II: Portraits of Service Spring 2024

History Now Essay

Jack Cleveland Montgomery: Peace to War and Back Again

Tom Holm

Few combat veterans have seemingly overcome the trauma that comes with their terrifying, horrific experiences. Most, in fact, suffer from the mild to severe effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and undergo flashbacks,...

Appears in:

70 | World War II: Portraits of Service Spring 2024

History Now Essay

Harry Katsuharu Fukuhara: A Life of Service in War and Peace

Pamela Rotner Sakamoto

Harry peered at the document aboard the transport ship bound for the Pacific. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had written to the American troops, “Upon the outcome depends the freedom of your lives: the freedom of the lives of...

Appears in:

70 | World War II: Portraits of Service Spring 2024

History Now Essay

"Courage to Face the Unknown": The World War II Service and Legacy of Celina Baez Sotomayor

Elizabeth R. Escobedo

During the 1940s hundreds of thousands of American women left their hometowns to serve in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC), a US Army unit created in World War II to enable women to serve in noncombat positions and “free a man to fight.” ...

Appears in:

70 | World War II: Portraits of Service Spring 2024

History Now Essay

From the Editor

Carol Berkin

This issue of History Now is supported by the Veterans Legacy Grant Program, an initiative of the Department of Veterans Affairs. For most Americans, the sacrifices made by the men and women in the military services command respect...

Appears in:

70 | World War II: Portraits of Service Spring 2024

History Now Essay

Iberian Roots of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, 1440–1640

David Wheat

World History

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

In its broadest sense, African American history predates the history of the United States, colonial or otherwise; by the time the English colony of Virginia was founded in 1607, Africans and people of African descent had already been...

Appears in:

25 | Three Worlds Meet Fall 2010

History Now Essay

Andrew Jackson’s Shifting Legacy

Daniel Feller

Economics, Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Of all presidential reputations, Andrew Jackson’s is perhaps the most difficult to summarize or explain. Most Americans recognize his name, though most probably know him (in the words of a famous song) as the general who "fought the...

Appears in:

22 | Andrew Jackson and His World Winter 2009

History Now Essay

Everyone’s Backyard: The Love Canal Chemical Disaster

Amy M. Hay

Government and Civics, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

It all started quietly. There were no alerts, no sirens, no evacuation plans, no reports from Jim Cantore on the Weather Channel. Most people living in the LaSalle neighborhood of Niagara Falls, New York, first heard about problems in...

Appears in:

40 | Disasters in Modern American History Fall 2014

History Now Essay

Lincoln’s Interpretation of the Civil War

Eric Foner

Government and Civics, Literature, Religion and Philosophy

10, 11, 12, 13+

On March 4, 1865, Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office for the second time. The setting itself reflected how much had changed in the past four years. When Lincoln delivered his First Inaugural Address, the new Capitol dome, which...

Appears in:

26 | New Interpretations of the Civil War Winter 2010

History Now Essay

Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Matter of Influence

Hollis Robbins

Literature

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

One hundred years after Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852, the poet Langston Hughes called the novel, "the most cussed and discussed book of its time." Hughes’s observation is particularly apt in that it avoids...

Appears in:

16 | Books That Changed History Summer 2008

History Now Essay

The Legal Status of Women, 1776–1830

Marylynn Salmon

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

State law rather than federal law governed women’s rights in the early republic. The authority of state law meant that much depended upon where a woman lived and the particular social circumstances in her region of the country. The...

Appears in:

7 | Women's Suffrage Spring 2006

History Now Essay

No Way Out: Lord Cornwallis, the Siege of Yorktown, and America’s Victory in the War for Independence

James Kirby Martin

Early on the morning of October 17, 1781, Lieutenant General Charles, Lord Cornwallis, found himself hunkered down in a cave near the southern shoreline of the York River. Above him was the disintegrating hamlet of Yorktown, Virginia,...

Appears in:

31 | Perspectives on America’s Wars Spring 2012

History Now Essay

FDR’s Court-Packing Plan: A Study in Irony

Richard G. Menaker

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

The Great Depression of the 1930s was the nation’s grimmest economic crisis since the founding of the American republic. After the 1932 elections, Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced a series of innovative remedies—his New Deal—but the...

Appears in:

15 | The Supreme Court Spring 2008

History Now Essay

The Influenza Pandemic of 1918–1919

Carol Byerly

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

On September 19, 1918, 21-year-old Army private Roscoe Vaughan reported to sick call at Camp Jackson, South Carolina, feeling achy and feverish. He was promptly hospitalized along with eighty-two other soldiers that day. Influenza had...

Appears in:

40 | Disasters in Modern American History Fall 2014

History Now Essay

The Pueblo Revolt

Edward Countryman

Government and Civics, Religion and Philosophy

In 1680 the people known collectively as "Pueblos" rebelled against their Spanish overlords in the American Southwest. Spaniards had dominated them, their lives, their land, and their souls for eight decades. The Spanish had...

Appears in:

28 | American Indians Summer 2011

History Now Essay

From the Editor

Carol Berkin

Hamilton! This is his moment. After years of being overlooked when Americans named the members of that pantheon known as "the Founding Fathers," Alexander Hamilton has finally become a star. Literally. It took a talented young rapper...

Appears in:

44 | Alexander Hamilton in the American Imagination Winter 2016

History Now Essay

The Culture of Congress in the Age of Jackson

Joanne B. Freeman

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

During an 1841 debate in the House of Representatives, Edward Stanly of North Carolina said something derogatory about Virginian Henry Wise. A few minutes later, Wise walked over to Stanly’s seat. After some "earnest, and excited...

Appears in:

22 | Andrew Jackson and His World Winter 2009

History Now Essay

The Revolutionary Era West, before and after American Independence

Jessica Choppin Roney

Geography, Government and Civics, World History

In December 1772, a year before angry colonists heaved chests of East India tea into Boston Harbor, the British government seemed on the cusp of creating a new North American colony. Named “Vandalia,” in honor of Queen Charlotte’s...

Appears in:

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

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

History Now Essay

Trumbull's Declaration, and Ours

Richard Brookhiser

Art

In November 1826 John Trumbull’s paintings of the American Revolution were installed in the Rotunda of the Capitol in Washington, DC. The most famous of them is his depiction of the Declaration of Independence being presented to the...

Appears in:

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

Judith Sargent Murray and the Declaration of Independence

Sheila L. Skemp

Literature

Judith Stevens (as she was then) was just twenty-five years old when a group of men in Philadelphia boldly declared the American colonies’ independence from England. Insisting that all men were created equal, and claiming that all...

Appears in:

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

History Now Essay

From the Editor

Carol Berkin

The Declaration of Independence produced a crisis of loyalties for the American people. For many, it was a just and fair call for release from the control of a British king and Parliament that had turned a mother country into an...

Appears in:

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

History Now Essay

From the Editor

Carol Berkin

To celebrate the launch of Gilder Lehrman’s new website, we at History Now thought it appropriate to provide readers with a special, expanded issue. We chose for our topic one of the central themes in our national history: the causes...

Appears in:

31 | Perspectives on America’s Wars Spring 2012

History Now Essay

From The Editor

Carol Berkin

Literature

Every teacher knows that a novel can sometimes convey the mood and spirit of a historical era or event more powerfully than a textbook. And every teacher also knows that some novels have even made history. These are books that every...

Appears in:

16 | Books That Changed History Summer 2008

History Now Essay

Diego de Gardoqui and the Beginnings of Spanish-American Diplomacy

Elisa Vargas

Born into a prominent Basque family on November 12, 1735, in the province of Vizcaya, Spain, Diego de Gardoqui was a treasured son of Don José Ignacio Gardoqui y Azpegorta and his wife Maria Simona. Groomed to be a banker, he was sent...

Appears in:

68 | The Role of Spain in the American Revolution Fall 2023

History Now Essay

Benjamin Franklin, Spain, and the Independence of the United States

Thomas E. Chávez

On November 29, 1775, more than six months before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Congress’s Secret Committee of Correspondence gave instructions to Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee to travel to Paris to...

Appears in:

68 | The Role of Spain in the American Revolution Fall 2023

History Now Essay

Felicitas St. Maxent, Wife of Bernardo de Gálvez: From French New Orleans Belle to Exiled Spanish Dowager Countess

Gonzalo M. Quintero Saravia

When Marie-Felicité Saint-Maxent La Roche was born in New Orleans on December 27, 1755, her future looked easy to predict: a pampered childhood, an arranged early marriage to the scion of a wealthy family, the motherhood of many...

Appears in:

68 | The Role of Spain in the American Revolution Fall 2023

History Now Essay

The Spanish Siege of Pensacola

Kathleen DuVal

In 1779, the king of Spain declared war on Britain. Like his ally the king of France, he decided to fight his British enemies while they were busy trying to defeat the American Revolution. As soon as he declared war, the Mississippi...

Appears in:

68 | The Role of Spain in the American Revolution Fall 2023

History Now Essay

The Declaration of Independence: America’s Call to Arms to Spain and France

Larrie D. Ferreiro

Early in the throes of the American Revolution in the summer of 1776, Thomas Jefferson was wrestling with a document to King Carlos III of Spain and King Louis XVI of France that would bring much-needed help to the embattled American...

Appears in:

68 | The Role of Spain in the American Revolution Fall 2023

History Now Essay

Spain’s Black Militias in the American Revolution

Jane Landers

In 1775, Virginia’s governor, John Murray, Earl of Dunmore, issued a proclamation offering liberty to all enslaved Blacks who would join Great Britain’s military forces and defeat the rebellious Americans fighting for their...

Appears in:

68 | The Role of Spain in the American Revolution Fall 2023

History Now Essay

The War against Spain in the Philippines in 1898

Richard Meixsel

Before learning of Commodore George Dewey’s destruction of the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay on the morning of May 1, 1898, few Americans knew anything about the Philippine Islands. In her Pulitzer Prize–winning In the Days of McKinley ...

Appears in:

31 | Perspectives on America’s Wars Spring 2012

History Now Essay

From Citizen to Enemy: The Tragedy of Japanese Internment

Julie Des Jardins

Government and Civics, World History

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

Although World War II is covered in most school curricula, the story of American citizens who were stripped of their civil liberties here, on American soil, during that war is often omitted. Yet what happened to first-generation...

Appears in:

14 | World War II Winter 2007

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