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9. Recommended Reading
The Gilder Lehrman Institute recommends the books listed here, which represent the very best in recent scholarship on the origins, impact, and legacy of the Declaration of Independence. Visit the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop Bailyn, Bernard. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967. Wood, Gordon S. The Radicalism of the American Revolution. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991. Norton, Mary Beth. Liberty’s Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience of American Women, 1750–1800. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996. Maier, Pauline....
10. Images of the Founding Era
Explore a gallery of images and broadsides related to the Declaration of Independence and Revolutionary Era.
13. What's New
“The Declaration at 250” is a multi-year project. These pages will be updated with new resources periodically. Check back here to find out what the Gilder Lehman Insitute of American History has planned. Coming Soon April 2022: A new publication, Black Historians on the Record, with essays related to democracy and liberty across the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. Highlights include “Race and the American Constitution: A Struggle toward National Ideals” by James Oliver Horton “African Americans and the Making of Liberia” by Claude A. Clegg “Avoiding the Trap of...
Guided Readings: Religion and Social Reform: Abolitionism
Reading 1 Assenting to the “self-evident truth” maintained in the American Declaration of Independence, “that all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights” . . . I shall strenuously contend for the immediate enfranchisement of our slave population. . . . I am aware, that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. . . . Tell a man whose house is on fire, to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the...
Guided Readings: American Foreign Policy in the 1970s
Reading 1 Why are we in South Vietnam? We are there because we have a promise to keep. Since 1954 every American President has offered support to the people of South Vietnam. . . . We have made a national pledge to help South Vietnam defend its independence. And I intend to keep our promise. . . . We are also there to strengthen world order. Around the globe, from Berlin to Thailand, are people whose well-being rests, in part, on the belief that they can count on us if they are attacked. To leave Vietnam to its fate would shake the confidence of all these people in the value of...
Infographic: North-South Comparisons before the Civil War
View this infographic as a downloadable PDF.
Witnessing History: The Pardon of Homer Plessy: Recommended Resources
In conjunction with our panel, Witnessing History: The Pardon of Homer Plessy (presented in partnership with the Office of the Governor of Louisiana), the Gilder Lehrman Institute has compiled this list of resources on the Plessy v. Ferguson case, the history of discrimination, and the fight for civil rights in the United States. You can watch a recording of this program (originally held on March 16, 2022) below: For some of these links, you may need to be a subscriber on our site. To log in or start the subscription process, please click here. If you are a K–12 educator who has...
Abraham Lincoln Highlights
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, founded in 1994 promotes the knowledge and understanding of American history through educational programs and resources. Drawing on the 80,000 documents in the Gilder Lehrman Collection and an extensive network of eminent historians, the Institute provides teachers, students, and the general public with direct access to unique primary source materials. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and the HISTORY® Channel invite you to watch Abraham Lincoln, then explore Lincoln’s world through primary sources. The items below...
Presidential Election Results, 1789–2020
Introduction The Electoral College consists of 538 electors, who are representatives typically chosen by the candidate’s political party, though some state laws differ. Each state’s number of electors is based on its congressional delegation (one for each member in the House of Representatives and one for each member in the Senate). Currently, a total of 270 electoral votes is required to win the presidency. Before the 1804 election the first runner-up became vice president, as spelled out in the US Constitution. As a result of the Election of 1800, the method of electing the...
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