Nikita Khrushchev assumed leadership of the Soviet Union during the period following the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953. Khrushchev served as a General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as a… Read More ›
United States History
The Visible Saints – Book Review
The Visible Saints: The History of a Puritan Idea by Edward S Morgan. Publisher: Martino Fine Books (November 6, 2013), 174 pages. This book is based on a set of lectures that Morgan gave as the Anson G Phelps Lectures… Read More ›
A War of Frontier and Empire: The Philippine-American War, 1899-1902 – Book Review
David Silbey’s A War of Frontier Empire is a narrative history of the complexity and shifting definitions of the war between the U.S. and the Philippines in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Silbey weaves the threads of impact together, arguing… Read More ›
What was the First Wave Feminist Movement?
While there is no clear consensus as to when ‘first wave’ feminism occurred, most accept that in the 19th century, as industrialization progressed, First Wave feminism emerged. The term itself was only coined in 1968 by Martha Lear, who also… Read More ›
Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England – Book Review
Since the mid-1980s, William Cronon’s contributions to environmental history remain pivotal. Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (1992) combined environmental, ecological, and economic histories to explore the effects of the Midwest’s largest city on the region and surrounding lands. Likewise, Cronon’s… Read More ›
New Nixon and Youth Politics, 1968
By Seth Blumenthal from processhistory.org Running for president in 1968, Richard Nixon offered a flattering view of the nation’s youth, those Americans born during or after World War II. “They are more socially conscious, more politically aware, and much better educated… Read More ›
Why was South Vietnam’s President Ngo Dinh Diem assassinated in 1963?
As 1960 drew to a close, Ngo Dinh Diem remained the president of South Vietnam. He had successfully thwarted a coup attempt against his government. The United States, at least publicly, supported the Diem presidency. It was seen as the… Read More ›
Understanding Reconstruction – A Historiography
As the United States entered the 20th century, Reconstruction slowly receded into popular memory. Historians began to debate its results. William Dunning and John W. Burgess led the first group to offer a coherent and structured argument. Along with their… Read More ›
What are the Origins of the Abolitionist Movement?
The movement toward the abolition of the system of enslavement has been remembered as one of the great humanitarian initiatives in modern history. Occurring as it did in a world that was rent by the slaveholding republics and empires of… Read More ›
Hiroshima: Why America Dropped the Atomic Bomb – Book Review
Originally Published on Videri.org Ronald Takaki’s book Hiroshima: Why America Dropped the Bomb explores the decision-making process that led up to America’s use of nuclear weapons against Japan in World War II. A professor of Ethnic Studies at the University… Read More ›
Black Sunday and the American Dust Bowl
From WereHistory.org by Mark F. Fernadez Just over eighty-three years ago, on April 14, 1935, residents of the Great Plains woke up to clear skies. As they headed to church on that Palm Sunday, they enjoyed fresh air and a… Read More ›
Revolutionary Deists: Early America’s Rational Infidels – Book Review
Kerry Walter’s book Revolutionary Deists: Early America’s Rational Infidels published by Prometheus Books focuses upon the period from 1725 to 1810 and the influence of deism on American society and its religious life. The main argument of the book is that deism… Read More ›
The Bid to Save the Republican Party that Led to the Wounded Knee Massacre
From We’reHistory.org by Heather Cox Richardson On November 13, 1890, troops moved into South Dakota, a military movement that would result six weeks later in the Wounded Knee Massacre. The president sent soldiers to South Dakota, the largest movement… Read More ›
Choosing the House Speaker: A Forgotten Fight
From We’re History by Peter H. Wood: In the sharp-elbowed world of U.S. politics, the selection of Speaker of the House of Representatives usually comes with a predictable rubber stamp. Now and then, however, the choice provokes an extended rumpus…. Read More ›
What are the Lasting Legacies of the Roman Empire on Modern Governments?
One obvious influence of the Roman Empire is the idea of a republic, a concept of governing by elected legislative and executive systems. The system in Rome also had a judicial system that, similar to today, was considered as the… Read More ›
Why did Los Angeles adopt Cars instead of Mass Transit?
By 1920, the streets of Los Angeles’s central core were some of the most congested in the United States. Pedestrians, streetcars, trains, and automobiles all competed for space on Los Angeles’s city streets, and its leaders had struggled with numerous… Read More ›
Why was the Turner Thesis abandoned by historians?
Fredrick Jackson Turner’s thesis of the American frontier defined the study of the American West during the 20th century. In 1893, Turner argued that “American history has been in a large degree the history of the colonization of the Great… Read More ›
Star Wars: why did the film make history?
From History Extra by Nicholas John Cull: There is a moment in the first Star Wars film when the mystic Obi Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness) detects across at great distance of space the destruction of a planet and remarks: “I felt a… Read More ›
The Most Damaging Myths About Slavery, Debunked
From History by Yohuru Williams: Were U.S. slaves in any way responsible for their own misery? Were there any silver linings to forced bondage? These questions surface from time to time in the American cultural conversation, rekindling a longstanding debate… Read More ›
The Founders Worried too, About Foreign Meddling in Our Elections
From History New Network by Jeanne Abrams author of First Ladies of the Republic: Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, and Dolley Madison and the Creation of an Iconic American Role (New York University Press, 2018): In December of 1787, leading American statesmen Thomas Jefferson… Read More ›
