Documents and Debates: Chapter 1: Early Contact
Looking for thematic primary sources for your classroom? Teaching American History can help! We’ve developed the two-volume Documents and Debates Collection to illustrate the issues at stake in some of the […]
Federalism and Pandemics: A National Teachable Moment
“Emergencies are crucibles that contain and reveal the daily, slower burning problems of medicine and beyond – our vulnerabilities; our trouble grappling with uncertainty, how we die, how we prioritize […]
245th Anniversary of Lexington and Concord
The story is one of the most familiar in American history. Though shrouded in myth, the details are well-known. In the overnight hours of April 18-19, 1775, British regulars staggered […]
The Attack on Pearl Harbor in Two Documents
December 7th, 1941, marked the forced entry of the United States into World War II. Although the war in Europe had been going on since September 1939, and in East […]
Why Should We Teach Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address?
On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered “a few appropriate remarks” at the dedication of the Soldiers National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The inspiring prose of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address […]
The Atomic Bombs in the Context of World War II
On 6 August 1945, the B-29 bomber Enola Gay, piloted by Colonel Paul Tibbets, dropped the first atomic bomb used in war on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. Three days […]
Protesting the Louisiana Purchase
For most teachers and students of American history the decision seems like the no-brainer of all time. Napoleon of France was offering to sell the United States not just the […]
William Penn’s Idea of Liberty of Conscience
William Penn, while acceding to Pennsylvania colonists’ demand for power over changes to their governing charter, insisted that allowances for liberty of conscience never be removed from the Pennsylvania charter. […]
Lincoln Explains his War Policy
Two months before the presidential election in 1864, the reelection of President Lincoln still seemed uncertain. What soldiers and commanders sensed in the field —the inevitable defeat of the South—was […]
Lincoln on Dred Scott
On June 26 in 1857, Abraham Lincoln spoke to an audience in Springfield, Illinois to refute a speech given there two weeks earlier by Stephen Douglas. The speech could be […]