Lesson Plan Dawes to Burke to McGirt: Tribal Sovereignty, 1887–2020 Geography 9, 10, 11, 12 Click to download this three-lesson unit.
Essay The Declaration of Independence and the Long Struggle for Equality in America: An Introduction Louis P. Masur Government and Civics Whatever else the Declaration of Independence encompassed—a proclamation of political sovereignty, an indictment against the King of England, an appeal for allies—its assertion that “all men are created equal” shines as the polestar...
Essay An Introduction to Juneteenth Graham Hodges Juneteenth is the most widely recognized, long-lived Black commemoration of slavery’s demise. Juneteenth marks June 19, 1865, when federal troops commanded by General George Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, to proclaim freedom to...
Essay Facing the New Millennium Michael Flamm 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ In 1941, on the eve of Pearl Harbor, Time magazine publisher Henry Luce predicted that the twentieth century would become known as the "American Century." By many measures he was correct. During the next sixty years, the United States...
Essay Postwar Politics and the Cold War Jeremi Suri The late summer of 1945 marked the height of American power. The country that had suffered from dust bowls, economic depression, and a devastating attack on its Pacific naval fleet in the last decade-and-a-half emerged as the dominant...
Essay The Sixties Harvard Sitkoff Forty years after it ended, the 1960s remains the most consequential and controversial decade of the twentieth century. It would dawn bright with hope and idealism, see the liberal state attain its mightiest reforms and reach, and end...
Essay The Age of Reagan Gil Troy The Reagan Revolution of the 1980s sought to change Americans’ attitudes toward their country, their government, and the world, as the United States emerged from the 1970s. Ronald Reagan entered the White House in January 1981...
Essay The Civil Rights Movement Taylor Branch The word "movement" often designates a cultural shift of less import than the American Revolution, Great Depression, and other capitalized dramas in history. To be sure, some popular movements have gained broader recognition in the...
Essay The Fifties Alan Brinkley The years from the end of World War II to the end of the 1950s were dominated by four powerful changes in American life. The first was the birth of the Cold War, and the great fears that it created. The second was the dramatic growth...
Essay 1945 to the Present William H. Chafe 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ No event proved more important to the course of modern American history than World War II. The war cast America onto the world stage as a mighty economic and military giant. It rescued the country from the Great Depression, created...