80 items
University of Virginia historian Barbara Perry describes John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address, including background information on the President’s life and family, the writing of the speech, and major accomplishments of his...
"Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation"
Almost ten years before Brown v. Board of Education , Sylvia Mendez and her parents helped end school segregation in California. An American citizen of Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage who spoke and wrote perfect English, Mendez was...
"The Wall"
A young boy and his father visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Read by Rory O'Maley , who is King George in the North American Tour of Hamilton. Published in 1990 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Order The Wall at the Gilder Lehrman...
Alexander Keyssar - "Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College?"
Order Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College? at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every purchase through the link provided. Thank you for supporting our programs!
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America at the End of the 20th Century, Part 1
James T. Patterson, Professor of History Emeritus, Brown University, discusses his book Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush v. Gore. He looks at the United States during the final quarter of the twentieth century...
Barack Obama’s First Inaugural Address, 2009
The inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States in 2009 was a historic moment not only because Obama was the first African American ever sworn into executive office but also because he entered the presidency at a...
Beverly Gage - "G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century"
Beverly Gage is a professor of twentieth-century American history at Yale and winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Order G-Man at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every purchase through the link provided....
Breaking Diplomatic Ties with Iran during the Hostage Crisis, 1980
On April 7, 1980, President Jimmy Carter announced the breaking of diplomatic ties with Iran as a result of the Iran hostage crisis of 1979–1981. The US had first become actively involved in Iran in 1953, when the CIA helped overthrow...
Claude A. Clegg III - "The Black President: Hope and Fury in the Age of Obama"
Order The Black President at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every purchase through the link provided. Thank you for supporting our programs!
Eleanor Roosevelt’s four basic rights, 1944
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, a lifelong advocate of equal rights, used her position as First Lady to advocate against discrimination in the United States. However, Mrs. Roosevelt’s ideas were not embraced by everyone in the pre-civil...
Eric Foner, Kathleen DuVal, and Lisa McGirr - "Give Me Liberty! An American History"
Eric Foner is DeWitt Clinton Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University. Kathleen DuVal is a professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Lisa McGirr is a Charles Warren Professor of American...
Fredrik Logevall - "JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956"
Fredrik Logevall is the Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and a professor of history at Harvard University. Order JFK at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an...
Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945
David M. Kennedy is the Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History at Stanford University. Freedom from Fear focuses primarily on political and economic developments, recounting how presidents and citizens responded to the two great...
Garrett M. Graff - "Watergate: A New History"
Garrett M. Graff is a journalist and historian who has spent more than a dozen years covering politics, technology, and national security. He serves as the director of cyber initiatives for The Aspen Institute and is a contributor to...
Generations in Captivity: Slavery in America
Ira Berlin, Distinguished University Professor of History at the University of Maryland, describes how the complex interplay of regional and generational factors shaped the development of slavery in the antebellum United States.
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George Wallace on segregation, 1964
In 1958, George Wallace ran against John Patterson in his first gubernatorial race. In that Alabama election, Wallace refused to make race an issue, and he declined the endorsement of the Ku Klux Klan. This move won Wallace the...
Harold Holzer - "The Presidents Vs. The Press: The Endless Battle between the White House and the Media—from the Founding Fathers to Fake News"
Order The Presidents Vs. The Press at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every purchase through the link provided. Thank you for supporting our programs!
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Harry S. Truman responds to McCarthy, 1950
In February 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy alleged in a speech in West Virginia that more than 200 staff members at the Department of State were known to be members of the Communist Party. During Harry Truman’s press conference on...
Inside the Vault: "Meanwhile Back at the Branch..."
On November 3, 2022, our curators were joined by Barbara Harris Combs of Kennesaw State University. Professor Combs discussed the NAACP pamphlet Meanwhile Back at the Branch... and the many ways in which civil rights activists worked...
Inside the Vault: Dwight D. Eisenhower's Views on Vietnam in 1967 and 1968
On October 6, 2022, our curators discussed documents pertaining to Dwight D. Eisenhower’s views on Vietnam in 1967 and 1968. They were joined by Professor Michael J. Birkner of Gettysburg College, who described Eisenhower’s evolving...
Inside the Vault: Robert F. Kennedy's Report on Civil Rights
At the end of 1962, President John F. Kennedy asked his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, to compile a report on the civil rights enforcement activities of the Justice Department over the previous year. In this report,...
Inside the Vault: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy
On the November 4, 2021, Inside the Vault , our curators are joined by Dr. Barbara Perry, the Gerald L. Baliles Professor and director of Presidential Studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, and Gilder Lehrman Master...
Inside the Vault: The March on Washington
On August 28, 1963, 250,000 people gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The event was covered by approximately 3,000 members of the press. The documents discussed illustrate the...
Inside the Vault: Twentieth-Century Voting Rights
On August 3, 2023, our curators were joined by Dr. Barbara Perry, Gerald L. Baliles Professor and director of Presidential Studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, to discuss materials related to twentieth-century...
J. Edgar Hoover on campus unrest, 1970
In September 1970, J. Edgar Hoover composed an open letter to American students detailing his view on civil unrest at the nation’s colleges and universities and warning against the elements he believed responsible. Hoover opened with...
Jeff Nussbaum - "Undelivered: The Never-Heard Speeches That Would Have Rewritten History"
Jeff Nussbaum is a speechwriter and adjunct professor of public communications at American University. Order Undelivered at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every purchase through the link provided...
John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address, 1961
On January 20, 1961, John F. Kennedy was sworn in as the thirty-fifth President of the United States. His short, fourteen-minute inaugural address is best remembered for a single line: "My fellow Americans: ask not what your country...
Jonathan Eig - "King, A Life"
Jonathan Eig is a best-selling author. Order King, A Life at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every purchase through the link provided. Thank you for supporting our programs!
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Judy Tzu-Chun Wu and Gwendolyn Mink - "Fierce and Fearless: Patsy Takemoto Mink, First Woman of Color in Congress"
Judy Tzu-Chun Wu is a professor of history and Asian American studies at the University of California, Irvine. Gwendolyn Mink is the daughter of the late Congresswoman Patsy Takemoto Mink of Hawaii. Order Fierce and Fearless at the...
Ken Burns - "Our America: A Photographic History"
Ken Burns, the producer and director of numerous film series, including The Roosevelts: An Intimate History and Country Music , founded his own documentary film company, Florentine Films, in 1976. His landmark film, The Civil War ,...
Lonnie Bunch - "A Fool's Errand: Creating the National Museum of African American History and Culture in the Age of Bush, Obama, and Trump"
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Lyndon B. Johnson proclaims a national day of mourning for JFK, 1963
On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, by Lee Harvey Oswald. The next day, the newly sworn-in Lyndon B. Johnson issued his first presidential proclamation. In a statement that was broadcast...
Marc J. Selverstone - "The Kennedy Withdrawal: Camelot and the American Commitment to Vietnam"
Marc J. Selverstone, an associate professor in Presidential Studies, heads the Presidential Recordings Program at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, where he edits the secret White House tapes of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B....
Martha Jones - "Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All"
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