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United States – History
American History & Culture
- 100 years in Footage in 100 seconds.mov
- A compilation from the Getty collection highlighting the 20th century.
- Alexis de Tocqueville: Democracy in America
- Complete text of de Tocqueville’s famous work on American history, character, and government in the 1830’s. Also available as free downloadable files in various formats from Project Gutenberg: volume 1 — volume 2.
- American Experience
On air and online, the series brings to life the incredible characters and epic stories that have shaped America’s past and present.
- The American Founders Online
An Annotated Guide to Their Papers and Publications
from the Library of Congress.- American History from Revolution to Reconstruction and beyond
A hypertext on the history of the United States from the colonial period until modern times.
(Based initially on An Outline of American History from the U.S. State Department.- American Icons
- Free mp3 files of the radio show about American cultural icons.
- American Journeys
American Journeys contains more than 18,000 pages of eyewitness accounts of North American exploration, from the sagas of Vikings in Canada in AD1000 to the diaries of mountain men in the Rockies 800 years later.
- American Memory
- Collections from the Library of Congress.
- America’s Stone Age Explorers
- Companion website to NOVA program about the earliest Americans.
- Archiving Early America
- Site offers
a wealth of resources — a unique array of primary source material from 18th Century America. Scenes and portraits from original newspapers, magazines, maps and writings come to life just as they appeared to this country’s forebears more than 250 years ago.
- Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States
Here you will find one of the greatest historical atlases: Charles O. Paullin and John K. Wright’s Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States, first published in 1932. This digital edition reproduces all of the atlas’s nearly 700 maps.
- Biography of America
A telecourse and video series that presents American history as a living narrative. … For each program you’ll find an interactive feature …. In addition, you’ll find a listing of key events of the period, a map relevant to the period, the transcript of the video program, and a ‘Webliography’ – a set of annotated web links.
- Boundless US History
- Free online textbook covering the history of America from ancient times through the present.
- Cornell Making of America
The Cornell University Library Making of America Collection is comprised of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction.
- Digital History
Digital History is committed to providing high-quality historical resources for teachers and students for free and without advertising.
Includes documents, sheet music, interactive guides, American history exhibition, and more.- Documenting the American South
Documenting the American South (DocSouth) is a digital publishing initiative that provides Internet access to texts, images, and audio files related to southern history, literature, and culture.
- The Early Republic: Primary Documents On Events From 1799 To 1820
This wide-ranging collection of annotated primary documents provides readers with a balanced historical account of the issues and opinions incident to the early American Republic.
(SCC students, see librarian for password.)- Freedom: A History of the U.S.
Come along on an exciting journey through Joy Hakim’s story of freedom in America.
(Companion to the PBS series.)- History Matters: The U.S. Survey Course on the Web
Designed for high school and college teachers and students, History Matters serves as a gateway to web resources and offers other useful materials for teaching U.S. history.
- Library of Congress
- An excellent source for American history and government information as well as other material.
- National Museum of American History
- Virtual Exhibitions online cover topics from the founding of the United States onward, with a timeline, a music room, and information about the museum and its collections.
- Religion and the Founding of the American Republic
- From the Library of Congress, a look at the role of religion in 17th and 18th century America.
- Special Exhibits on the American Founding
- Coverage of the Constitutional Convention, the Federalist/AntiFederalist debate, the ratification of the Constitution, and the election of 1800.
- ShareAmerica
This site delivers information about current U.S. foreign policy and about American life and culture. It is produced by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Information Programs.
- The Star-Spangled Banner
- Special exhibit from the Smithsonian about the national anthem and the flag to which it refers.
- Talking History
- Based at SUNY Albany, this project’s
mission is to provide … as broad and outstanding a collection of audio documentaries, speeches, debates, oral histories, conference sessions, commentaries, archival audio sources, and other aural history resources as is available anywhere.
- Teaching American History
Learn more about American history by going back to the original source documents, from the founding through the 20th century and beyond.
- U.S. History.org
- From the Independence Hall Association in Philadelphia, this site features virtual tours of historical sites in Phili, facts, timelines, documents, and links.
- U.S. History Tours
US History Tours powered by Google Earth. This new format traces historical developments across time, touching down on locations vital to our nation’s heritage and development. Points of interest in each tour launch primary and multimedia sources.
- The War Within: Dissent During Crisis in America
Examines issues of war, peace, dissent and dialogue during critical periods in the 20th century when free speech and civil liberties were threatened.
The Revolutionary War (1775-1783)
- American Revolution – Biography
- The American Revolution
- A site about the battles, people, and events of the Revolutionary War.
- BritishBattles.com: American Revolutionary War
- A description of the American Revolution from the British point of view.
- Encyclopedia.com: American Revolution
- Selection of readings from The Oxford Companion to American Military History, The Dictionary of American History, The Oxford Companion to United States History, and The Columbia Encyclopedia, as well as offering links to further articles.
- A Guide to the American Revolution, 1763-1783
- A webguide from the Library of Congress with a range of digital materials including scanned newspapers, pictures, documents, and links to other websites.
- History.com: American Revolution
- Short articles on historical topics, arranged by suhject.
- The History Place: American Revolution
- Timelines in American history.
- National Archives: Military Resources: Revolutionary War
- Links to documents and records relating to the Anerican Revolution.
- Pictures of the Revolutionary War
- From the National Archives.
Slavery (Colonial Era - 1865)
- 1619: 400 years ago, a ship arrived in Virginia, bearing human cargo
- “The arrival of 20 and odd enslaved Africans in 1619 has been called the beginning of U.S. slavery. It’s actually far more complicated than that.”
- 1619 Project
The 1619 Project is an ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that began in August 2019, the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery.
Also available as an archived PDF of the original issue, and as a podcast series.- The Atlantic Slave Trade in Two Minutes
315 years. 20,528 voyages. Millions of lives.
Shown in an animated map format.- Book: American Slavery Continued Until 1941
Slavery in America didn’t end with the Civil War. Between 1865 and 1941 millions of African-Americans were forced to work with little or no pay and many were held against their will…
(Newsweek, July 2008)- Digital History: Overview of Slavery
- Selections from an online textbook. From this page, click the tabs for the actual Textbook, documents, images, etc.
- History.com: 5 Myths About Slavery
Find out the truth behind five common myths or misunderstandings about slavery in the United States.
- History.com: Slavery in America
- An overview of slavery in the U.S. from the early colonies to the Civil War.
- The History of American Slavery Podcast
- From ‘The Slate’ magazine, archives of a 2015 series of podcasts which
… explore the history of American slavery and examine how the institution came to shape our country’s politics, economy, and culture.
- Library of Congress: Born in Slavery
More than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves.
- Library of Congress: Slaves and the Courts, 1740-1860
just over a hundred pamphlets and books (published between 1772 and 1889) concerning the difficult and troubling experiences of African and African-American slaves in the American colonies and the United States.
- Library of Congress: Voices Remembering Slavery: Freed People Tell Their Stories
The almost seven hours of recorded interviews …. Twenty-three interviewees, born between 1823 and the early 1860s, discuss how they felt about slavery, slaveholders, coercion of slaves, their families, and freedom.
- North American Slave Narratives
Books and articles that document the individual and collective story of African Americans struggling for freedom and human rights in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries.
- People Not Property: Stories of Slavery in the Colonial North
People Not Property is an interactive documentary about the history of Northern colonial enslavement produced by Historic Hudson Valley.
Includes timemap, glossary, bibliography, teacher resources, and related links as well as short videos and articles.- Slave Voyages
European colonizers turned to Africa for enslaved laborers to build the cities and extract the resources of the Americas. They forced millions of mostly unnamed Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas, and from one part of the Americas to another. Analyze these slave trades and view interactive maps, timelines, and animations to see the dispersal in action.
- Slavery in New York
- An online exhibit about slavery in New York State from the 1600s to 1827 (when it was legally abolished in the state).
- Slavery’s explosive growth, in charts: How ’20 and odd’ became millions
A twist of fate ended this torturous journey on the colony’s shores for more than 20 of the Bautista’s enslaved Angolans. Their landing would presage a trade and industry built on African labor that would reach a staggering scale in the United States over 200 years…
- Tracks to Freedom: The Inspiring Story of the Underground Railroad
A newly found journal of interviews with fugitive slaves gives insight into the secret network.
From National Geographic. (2015)
The Civil War (1861-1865)
- American Battlefield Trust
The American Battlefield Trust preserves America’s hallowed battlegrounds and educates the public about what happened there and why it matters.
Includes maps, photos, apps, virtual tours, articles (such as an Overview of the Civil War) and more.- The Atlantic: Civil War 150th Anniversary Issue
On the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, we present this commemorative issue featuring Atlantic stories by Mark Twain, Henry James, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott, and many more.
- The Civil War – Harper’s Weekly Original Civil War Newspapers
Harper’s Weekly was the most popular newspaper during the Civil War, and it featured stunning illustrations, and in depth stories on all the important people and events of the war.
- The U.S. Civil War in Art
“The Civil War in Art: Teaching and Learning through Chicago Collections” is intended to help teachers and students learn about the Civil War—its causes and effects—and connect to the issues, events, and people of the era through works of art.
- Civil War Maps
Civil War Maps brings together materials from three premier collections: the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division, the Virginia Historical Society, and the Library of Virginia….all available for the first time in one place.
From the Library of Congress.- Civil War Photographs: The Matthew Brady Bunch
The Civil War was the first American war thoroughly caught on film. Mathew Brady and his crew of photographers captured many images of this divisive war, ranging from portraits to battle scenes. These photographs–over 1,000–are in Selected Civil War Photographs 1861-1865 in American Memory.
From the Library of Congress.- Discovering the Civil War: Resources
- An exhibit from the National Archives.
- Documenting the American South
A digital publishing initiative that provides Internet access to texts, images, and audio files related to southern history, literature, and culture.
Includes the Civil War and Reconstruction eras.- Essential Civil War Curriculum
Produced by today’s foremost Civil War historians, this site contains a definitive list of over 325 topics that every student of the Civil War should study.
Includes articles, images, lists of resources, and more.- History.com: Civil War
- Covers the conflict from the background and outbreak to the end, with an additional section of photographs.
- National Geographic: The Battles of the U.S. Civil War
Learn about the strategic, though often unpredictable, locations of battles during the U.S. Civil War from 1861 to 1865.
- National Park Service: Civil War
- Looks at the stories, the people, and the places relating to the US Civil War.
- Painting Pickett’s Charge
- Describes the work behind Rothermel’s painting of Pickett’s Charge, and the compromises between accuracy, politics, and composition which the painter made. (New York Times, Nov. 2013)
- Smithsonian Magazine: Special Report: The Cibil War
- Links to articles and images of the people and events of the U.S. Civil War.
- Torn in Two: Mapping the American Civil War
This exhibition tells the story of the American Civil War both nationally and locally in Boston, Massachusetts, through maps, documents, letters, and other primary sources.
- US Civil War: Selected Resources
- Text, maps, and photos from the Library of Congress.
- The Valley of the Shadow
The Valley Project details life in two American communities, one Northern and one Southern, from the time of John Brown’s Raid through the era of Reconstruction. In this digital archive you may thousands of original letters and diaries, newspapers and speeches, census and church records….
The 1920s
- American History From Revolution to Reconstruction:… Modernism and Experimentation: 1914-1945
- From a hypertext project on American history based on An Outline of American History and related works.
- Crash Course: The Roaring 20’s (video)
- From the Crash Course series on YouTube, learn
about the Charleston, the many Republican presidents of the 1920s, laissez-faire capitalism, jazz, consumer credit, the resurgent Klan, and all kinds of other stuff.
- Digital History: The 1920s
- Primary sources and commentary about people and events in American History.
- History.com: The Roaring Twenties
In the Roaring Twenties, a surging economy created an era of mass consumerism, as Jazz-Age flappers flouted Prohibition laws and the Harlem Renaissance redefined arts and culture.
- InfoPlease: 1920-1929 World History
- Timeline to significant world events during the 1920’s, with links.
- Jazz Age Culture
- Tons of annotated links about Jazz Age music, art, writers, society and culture from a professor of English at Pittsburg State University. Another page contains links specifically about Jazz Poetry.
- Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929
- Documents, photos, audio, and video files from the Library of Congress.
- Thought.co: 1920s
- Includes articles on flappers, Prohibition, and various people and events of the era.
- Thought.co: Women’s Suffrage
Find articles and other resources for understanding the history of women’s suffrage and the passing of the 19th amendment.
- UNUM: Ken Burns (video)
- Clips of Ken Burns’ shows about various aspects of the 1920s, including the Dust Bowl, Jazz, Prohibition and gangsters, women’s suffrage, and more.
Prohibition (1920-1933)
- 10 Things You Should Know About Prohibition
- From the History Channel,
learn 10 fascinating facts about America’s nearly 14-year “noble experiment” in alcohol prohibition.
- Alcohol, Temperance and Prohibition
- Reproductions of pamphlets from before and during the Prohibition era.
- For Fun Prohibition Trivia, This is the “real McCoy”
- Facts and trivia about Prohibition.
- Indomitable Spirits: Prohibition in the United States
- An exhibit from the Digital Public Library of America showing the lead-up to Prohibition, the Prohibition years, the repeal of the 21st Amendment, and Prohibition’s long-lasting legacy.
- NPR: Prohibition Life: Politics, Loopholes And Bathtub Gin
- A Fresh Air interview with the author of a book about the era.
- PBS: Prohibition
- A tie-in to the series by Ken Burns, with information, short biographies, maps, images, and streaming video clips from all three episodes.
- Prohibition: A Case Study of Progressive Reform
- A study about prohibition and its effects, based on documents at the Library of Congress.
- Temperance & Prohibition
- Extensive site about the history of Prohibiion, with images, cartoons, and writings from the Prohibition era.
The 1930s & Great Depression
- American Experience: Surviving the Dust Bowl
The story of the farmers who came to the Southern Plains of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas dreaming of prosperity, and lived through ten years of drought, dust, disease and death.
- American History From Revolution to Reconstruction:… Modernism and Experimentation: 1914-1945
- From a hypertext project on American history based on An Outline of American History and related works.
- Common Lit: Except from ‘On Drought Conditions’
- A selection from President Franklin Roosevelt’s 1936 talk about the Dust Bowl. You can hear the original on YouTube at Franklin D. Roosevelt – On Drought Conditions (September 6, 1936).
- Crash Course: The Great Depression (video)
- From the Crash Course series on YouTube,
how the depression started, what Herbert Hoover tried to do to fix it, and why those efforts failed.
- Crash Course: The New Deal (video)
- From the Crash Course series on YouTube, a lesson teaching
how the New Deal changed the relationship between the government and citizens, and will even reveal just how the Depression ended.
- Digital History: the Great Depression
- Selections from an online textbook, with text, images, multimedia, and further links.
- EH.Net: The Dust Bowl
The phrase “Dust Bowl” holds a powerful place in the American imagination.
A detailed article from EH.Net Encyclopedia.- EH.net: An Overview of the Great Depression
This article provides an overview of selected events and economic explanations of the interwar era.
Lengthy article from the EH.Net Economic History Encyclopedia.- Great Depression
- An article from The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics.
- The Great Depression (video)
The unemployed, the soup kitchens, the grinding poverty, and the despair-the worldwide consequences of the Great Depression.
are featured in this series of short YouTube videos from Britannica.- The Great Depression and the New Deal, 1929-1940s
- An overview by a teacher of U.S. history.
- History.com: The Great Depression
The Great Depression began with the stock market crash of 1929 and was made worse by the 1930s Dust Bowl. President Franklin D. Roosevelt responded to the economic calamity with programs known as the New Deal.
Set of articles from the History Channel.- History.com: The New Deal
The New Deal was a series of programs and projects instituted during the Great Depression by President Franklin D. Roosevelt that aimed to restore prosperity to Americans.
Set of articles from the History Channel.- Khan Academy: The Great Depression
After the stock market crash of 1929, the American economy spiraled into a depression that would plague the nation for a decade.
Part of Khan Academy’s AP History unit.- Library of Congress: Farm Security Administration
The images in the Farm Security Administration-Office of War Information Collection are among the most famous documentary photographs ever produced.
- Thought.co: The Great Depression
- Overview and links to related articles.
- Voices from the Dust Bowl
An online presentation of a multi-format ethnographic field collection documenting the everyday life of residents of Farm Security Administration (FSA) migrant work camps in central California in 1940 and 1941.
September 11, 2001
- 9/11 Remembered – Ten Years On
- A retrospective from an Australian newpaper, including stories, video, audio, and photos.
- 9/11 Timeline: Three Hours That Changed Everything
- Timeline and graphic showing the events of 9/11 from 8:00 AM to 11:00 AM.
- American Rhetoric: Rhetoric of 9-11
This SPECIAL ISSUE of the Online Speech Bank contains [114] active links to historic and recent speeches and other rhetorical artifacts following the 11 September 2001 attacks in New York and Washington D.C.
- BBC News: America’s Day of Terror
- Timeline, pictures, audo and video recordings, the four planes involved, and other information.
- History.com: September 11 Attacks
- History.com: September 11: Attack on America
- Article and links about the background, events, and impacts of the 9/11 attacks.
- :Library of Congress: September 11, 2001, Documentary Project
The September 11, 2001 Documentary Project captures the reactions, eyewitness accounts, and diverse opinions of Americans and others in the months that followed the terrorist attacks … Patriotism and unity mixed with sadness, anger, and insecurity are common themes expressed in this online presentation of almost 200 audio and video interviews, 45 graphic items, and 21 written narratives.
From the Library of Congress.- Library of Congress: September 11, 2001 Web Archive
The September 11, 2001, Web Archive preserves the web expressions of individuals, groups, the press and institutions in the United States and from around the world in the aftermath of the attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001.
- National September 11 Memorial and Museum
- The museum will be dedicated on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and open to the public on September 12, 2011. The website includes museum information, several online collections, a timeline, World Trade Center history, and more.
- On 9/11, Luck Meant Everything
- A human-interest article about some of the people who lived and died in the 9/11 attacks.
- Remembering September 11th
- A collections of photographs from the Boston Globe.
- The September 11 Digital Archive
- Images, stories, audio, video, documents, more.
- Time: September 11 Attacks: Ten Years Later
To hail that spirit on the 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001, TIME revisited the people who led us, moved us and inspired us, from the morning of the attacks through the tumultuous decade that followed.
- What happened on 11 September 2001?
- A short timeline with pictures and links to related articles, from the BBC.
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