Search | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

460 items

History Now Essay

"One of those monstrosities of nature": The Galveston Storm of 1900

Elizabeth Hayes Turner

Geography, Government and Civics, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

Dawn brought "mother of pearl" skies to Galveston, Texas, that Saturday morning of September 8, 1900. The city of 38,000, perched on an island just off the mainland, had an elevation of no more than nine feet. With no sea wall to...

Appears in:

40 | Disasters in Modern American History Fall 2014

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

"Revered By All": The Declaration of Independence in the Reconstruction Era

Douglas R. Egerton

Government and Civics

Although it was the speech that redefined the conflict and effectively changed the meaning of the Constitution, Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Gettysburg Address is often misunderstood today when it is not simply ignored, at least in American...

Appears in:

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

History Now Essay

"Show Them What an Indian Can Do": The Example of Jim Thorpe

Joseph Bruchac

Although the twentieth century produced many great athletes, there is no one who stood out more than Jim Thorpe. That is not just my opinion. When Jim Thorpe won two gold medals at the 1912 Olympic Games, the king of Sweden said to...

Appears in:

59 | American Indians in Leadership Winter 2021

History Now Essay

"The Authentic Voice of Today": Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton

Elizabeth L. Wollman

Art

"The show is the first Broadway musical in some time to have the authentic voice of today rather than the day before yesterday." The comment above could easily have been written about Hamilton , but it was written long before Hamilton...

Appears in:

44 | Alexander Hamilton in the American Imagination Winter 2016

History Now Essay

"The Brave Men, Living and Dead": Common Soldiers at the Battle of Gettysburg

Robert Bonner

Midway through his remarks at the Gettysburg National Soldiers’ Cemetery on November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln confided that "the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here." This remarkable (and remarkably off-target)...

Appears in:

37 | Gettysburg: Insights and Perspectives Fall 2013

History Now Essay

"The Chinese Question"—Unresolved and Ongoing for Americans

John Kuo Wei Tchen

Government and Civics

In 1882, the United States Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act—the nation’s first race-based immigration law that was not effectively repealed until 1965–1968. The act exempted Chinese merchants, diplomats, scholars, and...

Appears in:

42 | The Role of China in US History Spring 2015

History Now Essay

"The New Colossus": Emma Lazarus and the Immigrant Experience

Julie Des Jardins

Literature

To read the text and hear the poem click here. Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the...

Appears in:

39 | American Poets, American History Spring 2014

History Now Essay

"The Politics of the Future Are Social Politics": Progressivism in International Perspective

Thomas Bender

Economics, Government and Civics, World History

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

The American Progressive movement was not simply a response to the domestic conditions produced by industrialization and urbanization. Instead, it was part of a global response to these developments during an era of unregulated...

Appears in:

17 | Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Era Fall 2008

History Now Essay

"The Seed Time of a Great Harvest": Douglass Recalls Fellow Abolitionists

Quandra Prettyman

Quandra Prettyman , senior associate in the English and Africana Studies departments at Barnard College, was one of the first Black faculty members at the college. She taught the first courses in African American literature there in...

Appears in:

57 | Black Voices in American Historiography Summer 2020

Site Search

460 items

"One of those monstrosities of nature": The Galveston Storm of 1900

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

"Revered By All": The Declaration of Independence in the Reconstruction Era

"Show Them What an Indian Can Do": The Example of Jim Thorpe

"The Authentic Voice of Today": Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton

"The Brave Men, Living and Dead": Common Soldiers at the Battle of Gettysburg

"The Chinese Question"—Unresolved and Ongoing for Americans

"The New Colossus": Emma Lazarus and the Immigrant Experience

"The Politics of the Future Are Social Politics": Progressivism in International Perspective

"The Seed Time of a Great Harvest": Douglass Recalls Fellow Abolitionists

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