Critical Moments in American History
The Espionage and Sedition Acts: World War I and the Image of Civil Liberties
1st Edition
By Mitchell Newton-Matza
March 23, 2017
The Espionage and Sedition Acts of 1917-1918 mark one of the most controversial moments in American history. Even as President Woodrow Wilson justified US entry into World War I on the grounds that it would "make the world safe for democracy," the act curtailed civil liberties at home by making it ...
The Marshall Plan: A New Deal For Europe
1st Edition
By Michael Holm
November 07, 2016
Between 1948 and 1951, the Marshall Plan delivered an unprecedented $12.3 billion in U.S. aid to help Western European countries recover from the destruction of the Second World War, and forestall Communist influence in that region. The Marshall Plan: A New Deal for Europe examines the aid program,...
Bleeding Kansas: Slavery, Sectionalism, and Civil War on the Missouri-Kansas Border
1st Edition
By Michael Woods
September 28, 2016
Between 1854 and 1861, the struggle between pro-and anti-slavery factions over Kansas Territory captivated Americans nationwide and contributed directly to the Civil War. Combining political, social, and military history, Bleeding Kansas contextualizes and analyzes prewar and wartime clashes in ...
The California Gold Rush: The Stampede that Changed the World
1st Edition
By Mark A. Eifler
August 02, 2016
In January of 1848, James Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. For a year afterward, news of this discovery spread outward from California and started a mass migration to the gold fields. Thousands of people from the East Coast aspiring to start new lives...
The Battle of Fort Sumter: The First Shots of the American Civil War
1st Edition
By Wesley Moody
May 12, 2016
On April 12, 1861, the long-simmering tensions between the American North and South exploded as Southern troops in the seceding state of South Carolina fired on the Federal forces at Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor. The battle of Fort Sumter marked the outbreak of Civil War in the United States. ...
The WPA: Creating Jobs and Hope in the Great Depression
1st Edition
By Sandra Opdycke
April 20, 2016
Established in 1935 in the midst of the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was one of the most ambitious federal jobs programs ever created in the U.S. At its peak, the program provided work for almost 3.5 million Americans, employing more than 8 million people across its ...
Transforming Civil War Prisons: Lincoln, Lieber, and the Politics of Captivity
1st Edition
By Paul J. Springer, Glenn Robins
August 14, 2014
During the Civil War, 410,000 people were held as prisoners of war on both sides. With resources strained by the unprecedented number of prisoners, conditions in overcrowded prison camps were dismal, and the death toll across Confederate and Union prisons reached 56,000 by the end of the war. In an...
The Emergence of Rock and Roll: Music and the Rise of American Youth Culture
1st Edition
By Mitchell K. Hall
May 07, 2014
Rock and roll music evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and 1950s, as a combination of African American blues, country, pop, and gospel music produced a new musical genre. Even as it captured the ears of the nation, rock and roll was the subject of controversy and contention. ...
The Flu Epidemic of 1918: America's Experience in the Global Health Crisis
1st Edition
By Sandra Opdycke
March 19, 2014
In 1918, a devastating world-wide influenza epidemic hit the United States. Killing over 600,000 Americans and causing the national death rate to jump 30% in a single year, the outbreak obstructed the country's participation in World War I and imposed terrible challenges on communities across the ...
The Homestead Strike: Labor, Violence, and American Industry
1st Edition
By Paul Kahan
December 14, 2013
On July 6, 1892, three hundred armed Pinkerton agents arrived in Homestead, Pennsylvania to retake the Carnegie Steelworks from the company's striking workers. As the agents tried to leave their boats, shots rang out and a violent skirmish began. The confrontation at Homestead was a turning point ...
From Selma to Montgomery: The Long March to Freedom
1st Edition
By Barbara Harris Combs
November 19, 2013
On March 7, 1965, a peaceful voting rights demonstration in Selma, Alabama, was met with an unprovoked attack of shocking violence that riveted the attention of the nation. In the days and weeks following "Bloody Sunday," the demonstrators would not be deterred, and thousands of others joined their...
The Fort Pillow Massacre: North, South, and the Status of African Americans in the Civil War Era
1st Edition
By Bruce Tap
October 28, 2013
On April 12, 1864, a small Union force occupying Fort Pillow, Tennessee, a fortress located on the Mississippi River just north of Memphis, was overwhelmed by a larger Confederate force under the command of Nathan Bedford Forrest. While the battle was insignificant from a strategic standpoint, the ...