The Crimean Conference
Crimea, the sunfish-shaped peninsula on the Northern Black Sea, connected to the Ukraine at the “head”—but within a few miles of Russia at its eastern “tail”—has been in the news […]
The Atlantic Charter
During the first two years of World War II, Roosevelt and Churchill worked closely together, not only in making American resources available for the British war effort. They also prepared […]
FDR and the Outbreak of World War II
Two days after Hitler’s invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, Britain and France declared war on Germany. Franklin Roosevelt gave a radio address to Americans on the same day, […]
Kennedy Establishes the Peace Corps
On March 1 in 1961, President Kennedy established the Peace Corps. The idea for a volunteer force of young people sent to work in developing nations around the world, teaching […]
Teddy Roosevelt Discusses Trust-busting
Vice-President Theodore Roosevelt became President after the assassination of President McKinley in September, 1901. Hence his first annual message to Congress, on December 6, 1901, began with comments on this […]
Is Progress Possible? Freedmen in the South
The prospects for social advancement of black freedmen, especially in the South, were uncertain in the period immediately following Reconstruction. Jim Crow laws did not become nearly universal until after […]
The “Era of the Monroe Doctrine is Over”
On December 2, 1823, during his annual message to Congress, President James Monroe articulated a foreign policy stance for our nation that would become known as the Monroe Doctrine. He […]
Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Day Proclamation
Abraham Lincoln called for national days of Thanksgiving more than once during the Civil War. On April 10, 1862, after the union victory at Shiloh and the fall of the […]
Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation
We think of our national celebration of Thanksgiving as rooted in the harvest feast of seventeenth century Pilgrim settlers. But as an official government holiday, the celebration was inaugurated by […]
The Gettysburg Address: Lincoln’s “Silly Remarks”
Today, on the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, it is difficult to conceive that the most often memorized political speech from our history was not immediately hailed as a […]