Search | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

467 items

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

History Now Essay

"The Strange Spell That Dwells in Dead Men’s Eyes": The Civil War, by Brady

Harold Holzer

Art

"[T]he dead of the battle-field come up to us very rarely, even in dreams." So admitted the New York Times just a month after it had reported the grisly slaughter of 3,650 Union and Confederate troops at the Battle of Antietam. On a...

Appears in:

45 | American History in Visual Art Summer 2016

History Now Essay

"What We Leave the Earth": The African Burial Ground in New York City

David Mills

Literature

In October 2021, the African Burial Ground National Monument commemorated the thirtieth anniversary of the New York City slave cemetery’s rediscovery by the General Services Administration (GSA). In 1991, the GSA started construction...

Appears in:

62 | The Honored Dead: African American Cemeteries, Graveyards, and Burial Grounds Spring 2022

History Now Essay

“A Vote-less People Is a Hopeless People”: Lessons from Selma

Robert A. Pratt

The black freedom struggle, commonly referred to as the civil rights movement, is undoubtedly one of the greatest social movements in the history of the world. After more than two centuries of bondage followed by another century of...

Appears in:

51 | The Evolution of Voting Rights Summer 2018

57 | Black Voices in American Historiography Summer 2020

History Now Essay

“In the Name of America’s Future”: The Fraught Passage of the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act

Maddalena Marinari

Government and Civics

Senator Patrick McCarran (D−NV) was seething after Congress renewed the 1948 Displaced Persons Act in 1950. Incensed, McCarran wrote to his daughter: “I met the enemy and he took me on the DP bill. It’s tough to beat a million or more...

Appears in:

52 | The History of US Immigration Laws Fall 2018

History Now Essay

“Rachel Weeping for Her Children”: Black Women and the Abolition of Slavery

Margaret Washington

Government and Civics, Religion and Philosophy

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

During the period leading up to the Civil War, black women all over the North comprised a stalwart but now largely forgotten abolitionist army. In myriad ways, these race-conscious women worked to bring immediate emancipation to the...

Appears in:

5 | Abolition Fall 2005

57 | Black Voices in American Historiography Summer 2020

History Now Essay

9/11 and Springsteen

Craig Werner

Art, Government and Civics, World History

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

The transformation of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, into a seemingly foreordained historical narrative began almost as soon as the first plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Center. I was teaching an 8 a.m....

Appears in:

32 | The Music and History of Our Times Summer 2012

History Now Essay

A History of the Thanksgiving Holiday

Catherine Clinton

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Thanksgiving stands as one of the most American of holidays, an autumnal ritual fixed in the imagination as honoring the piety and perseverance of the nation’s earliest arrivals during colonial days. But what were the origins of this...

Appears in:

4 | American National Holidays Summer 2005

History Now Essay

A Local and National Story: The Civil Rights Movement in Postwar Washington, DC

Wendell E. Pritchett

Government and Civics

5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

The history of the Civil Rights Movement is the story of numerous grassroots campaigns loosely coordinated and assisted by a small number of national organizations. Every local struggle had its own actors, issues, and nuances, and all...

Appears in:

8 | The Civil Rights Movement Summer 2006

57 | Black Voices in American Historiography Summer 2020

History Now Essay

A More Perfect Union? Barack Obama and the Politics of Unity

Thomas J. Sugrue

Government and Civics

A New York Times headline in January 2009 captured the essence of Barack Obama’s inauguration for many Americans: "A Civil Rights Victory Party on the Mall." An estimated 1.8 million people gathered to celebrate. Many heroes of the...

Appears in:

36 | Great Inaugural Addresses Summer 2013

Site Search

467 items

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

"The Strange Spell That Dwells in Dead Men’s Eyes": The Civil War, by Brady

"What We Leave the Earth": The African Burial Ground in New York City

“A Vote-less People Is a Hopeless People”: Lessons from Selma

“In the Name of America’s Future”: The Fraught Passage of the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act

“Rachel Weeping for Her Children”: Black Women and the Abolition of Slavery

9/11 and Springsteen

A History of the Thanksgiving Holiday

A Local and National Story: The Civil Rights Movement in Postwar Washington, DC

A More Perfect Union? Barack Obama and the Politics of Unity

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