163 items
Historian Jill Lepore (David Woods Kemper ’41 Professor of American History at Harvard and a staff writer at the New Yorker ) discusses her 2012 book, The Story of America: Essays on Origins (Princeton University Press).
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Anti-Federalism and Dissent in Constitutional History
For our first live web chat for Affiliate Schools, Fordham University historian Saul Cornell joined Gilder Lehrman Institute President James Basker to discuss constitutional history and the modern-day implications of dissent in the...
The New Nation, 1783–1815
The leaders of the American Revolution made three great gambles. First, they sought independence from the powerful British Empire, becoming the first colonies in the Americas to revolt and seek independence from their mother empire....
Creating a New Government
When on July 4, 1776, Americans declared independence from the monarchy of Great Britain, they were faced with the formidable task of creating new republican governments. Their immediate focus was not on any central authority but on...
The Declaration of Independence in Global Perspective
No American document has had a greater global impact than the Declaration of Independence. It has been fundamental to American history longer than any other text because it was the first to use the name "the United States of America":...
The Social and Intellectual Legacy of the American Revolution
"We can see with other eyes; we hear with other ears; and think with other thoughts, than those we formerly used. We are now really another people, and cannot again go back to ignorance and prejudice. The mind once enlightened cannot...
Thomas Rowe and Joshua Hooper: Sedition charges, 1815
Even though the Sedition Act of 1798 had expired in 1801, individuals could still be charged with sedition. On January 20, 1815, Thomas Rowe and Joshua Hooper, publishers of the Massachusetts newspaper The Yankee , printed an article...
The Sedition Act, 1798
On August 14, 1798, the Columbian Centinel , a Boston newspaper aligned with the Federalist Party, printed this copy of the Sedition Act. It was the last in a series of legislation known as the Alien and Sedition Acts passed by the...
The Right to Vote, Part 1: The Early Republic through the Civil War
The Right to Vote: Part 1 The Early Republic through the Civil War
Who could vote in the founding and Jacksonian eras? Scroll through to view the exhibition (above). Recorded readings of select components in the exhibition...
Inside the Vault: The Reynolds Pamphlet
What led Alexander Hamilton to publish the infamous Reynolds Pamphlet (entitled Observations on Certain Documents . . . ) in which he confessed to an extramarital affair? What impact did it have on him, his family, and his career?...
Infographic: Differences between Federalists and Antifederalists
The differences between the Federalists and the Antifederalists are vast and at times complex. Federalists’ beliefs could be better described as nationalist. The Federalists were instrumental in 1787 in shaping the new US Constitution...
Guided Readings: Impact of the Revolution on Women and African Americans
Reading 1 I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If...
Guided Readings: Conflict over Ratifying the Constitution
View these Guided Readings as a printable PDF.
Guided Readings: Federalists and Jeffersonians
Reading 1 Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever he had a chosen people, whose breasts He has made His peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue. —Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia ...
Study Aid: Checks and Balances
Checks and Balances Executive Branch carries out the laws can veto laws can call special sessions of Congress controls enforcement of laws nominates judges can pardon people convicted of federal crimes commander in chief develops...
H.W. Brands - "Founding Partisans: Hamilton, Madison, Jefferson, Adams and the Brawling Birth of American Politics"
H. W. Brands holds the Jack S. Blanton Sr. Chair in History at the University of Texas at Austin. Order Founding Partisans at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every purchase through the link...
Maurizio Valsania- "First Among Men: George Washington and the Myth of American Masculinity"
Maurizio Valsania is a professor of American history at the University of Turin, Italy. Order First Among Men at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every purchase through the link provided. Thank you...
Steven Hahn - "Forging America: A Continental History"
Steven Howard Hahn is a professor of history at New York University. Order Forging America at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every purchase through the link provided. Thank you for supporting our...
Hamilton’s Report on the Subject of Manufactures, 1791
When George Washington became president in 1789, he appointed Alexander Hamilton as his secretary of the Treasury. Hamilton’s vision for the economic foundation of the United States included three main programs: 1) the federal...
Jeffrey Rosen - "The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America"
Jeffrey Rosen is a legal scholar who serves as the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center and a professor of law at the George Washington University Law School. Order The Pursuit of Happiness at the Gilder Lehrman Book...
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