Search | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

460 items

History Now Essay

A New Era of American Indian Autonomy

Ned Blackhawk

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

The American West is home to the majority of America’s Indian Nations, and, within the past generation, many of these groups have achieved unprecedented political and economic gains. Numerous reservation communities now manage...

Appears in:

9 | The American West Fall 2006

History Now Essay

A New Look at the Great Plains

Elliott West

Geography

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

To most Americans the Great Plains are the Great Flyover, or maybe the Great Drivethrough. Viewed from a window seat the plains seem nearly devoid of interest, something to get across enroute to someplace far worthier to explore or...

Appears in:

9 | The American West Fall 2006

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

A Poem Links Unlikely Allies in 1775: Phillis Wheatley and George Washington

James G. Basker

Government and Civics, Literature

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

One of the most surprising connections of the American Revolutionary era emerged at the very beginning of the war between the African American poet Phillis Wheatley and the commander in chief of the American forces, George Washington....

Appears in:

39 | American Poets, American History Spring 2014

History Now Essay

A Right Deferred: African American Voter Suppression after Reconstruction

Marsha J. Tyson Darling

Government and Civics

In the United States, voting is a constitutionally protected right and an essential symbol of meaningful political participation in our nation’s electoral processes of governing. The right to vote and to have one’s vote count toward...

Appears in:

51 | The Evolution of Voting Rights Summer 2018

57 | Black Voices in American Historiography Summer 2020

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

Abolition and Antebellum Reform

Ronald G. Walters

Government and Civics, Religion and Philosophy

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

When the Boston abolitionist Thomas Wentworth Higginson looked back on the years before the Civil War, he wrote, "there prevailed then a phrase, ‘the Sisterhood of Reforms.’" He had in mind "a variety of social and psychological...

Appears in:

5 | Abolition Fall 2005

History Now Essay

Abolition and Religion

Robert Abzug

Religion and Philosophy

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

One verse of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," the unofficial anthem of the Northern cause, summarized the Civil War’s idealized meaning: In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, With a glory in His bosom that...

Appears in:

5 | Abolition Fall 2005

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

Abraham Lincoln's "Apple of Gold": The Declaration of Independence

Harold Holzer

Government and Civics, Literature

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” [1] So Abraham Lincoln began the most famous speech of...

Appears in:

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

Site Search

460 items

A New Era of American Indian Autonomy

A New Look at the Great Plains

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

A Poem Links Unlikely Allies in 1775: Phillis Wheatley and George Washington

A Right Deferred: African American Voter Suppression after Reconstruction

A Second Declaration of Independence: The 1848 Declaration of Sentiments

Abolition and Antebellum Reform

Abolition and Religion

Abraham Lincoln and Jacksonian Democracy

Abraham Lincoln's "Apple of Gold": The Declaration of Independence

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