520 Excellent American History Topics & Tips for an A+ Paper

How can you define America? If you’ve ever asked yourself this question, studying US history will help you find the answer.

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This article will help you dive deeper into this versatile subject. Here, you will find:

  • Early and modern US history topics to write about. We’ve also got topics for DBQ essays for students taking an AP US history class.
  • Tips on how to create a great history paper.

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🔝 Top 10 American History Topics

✅ how to write a history paper, ⭐ top 10 us history topics to research.

  • 🦅 Topics Before 1865
  • ⚔️ Civil War Topics
  • 🛠️ Reconstruction & Industrialization
  • 🗽 20th Century Topics
  • 🔫 Topics on WWI & II
  • ☮️ Civil Rights Movement Topics
  • 💬 Debatable Topics
  • ✊🏿 Black History Topics
  • 🏞️ Native American Topics
  • ⭐ Topics on Famous People

🔍 References

  • The ideology of the Black Panthers
  • How did tenements affect America?
  • Why was Wilmot Proviso so controversial?
  • What characterizes the Roaring Twenties?
  • Cause and effect of the Missouri Compromise
  • The role of women during the Great Depression
  • Did anyone profit from the 1929 Stock Market Crash?
  • Michael Collins’ contribution to the space exploration
  • How did the US benefit from the Bracero Program?
  • Brigham Young’s contribution to the development of the West

History writing is controversial by nature. Selecting questions and topics is already a subjective process. On top of that, you need to interpret the sources. So, there is much to think about when it comes to history papers.

We’ve compiled several tips to make it easier for you. Check it out:

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  • Don’t be afraid to disagree . People explain many issues by conventional wisdom. Be skeptical and examine your own bias.
  • Explore new terrains . Not all historical events get the attention they deserve. Writing about generally neglected topics can yield fascinating results.
  • Consider how situations change over time . Frame your subject with a start- and endpoint.
  • Wonder . History is not just descriptions of what happened—it also questions how and why specific events took place.
  • Avoid relating everything to the present . Examine the past on its own terms. In doing so, keep the chronological order straight.
  • Don’t judge your subject . Your goal is to understand the past. Remember: moral norms might have been different in the period you’re studying.
  • Give context . It’s crucial to engage with and interpret your sources. Pinpoint their place in the grand scheme of events.

Finally, you might want to write in the present tense. While this works for other social sciences, it’s not advisable for history. It’s best to keep the past in the past! Also, if you need to construct a MLA title page , there’s nothing wrong in using a specialized tool to do that, as long as it allows you to concentrate on the more important part—writing.

  • What caused the Red Scare?
  • What did the Loyalists fight for?
  • Literacy rates during Puritan times
  • The effects of the Great Awakening
  • Why was the Boston Tea Party justified?
  • The aftermath of the Battle of Bunker Hill
  • Why was presidential Reconstruction a failure?
  • The causes of the economic recession of the 1780s
  • Railroads development role in the Industrial Revolution
  • Frederick Douglass’s contribution to the abolition of slavery

🦅 Essay Topics on US History before 1865

The period of colonial America is packed with turmoil. Think of the Boston Tea Party or the American Revolution. And these are only two of that era’s most notable events. In this rubric, you’ll find colonial American history essay topics. The period in question starts with the British arrival in the New World and ends with the Civil War.

  • The origins of Thanksgiving . One idea is to find out why the Pilgrims started celebrating it in the first place. Alternatively, you could examine how it became a national holiday.
  • Why did the British begin settling in the New World ? This topic allows you to explore the rivalry with Spain. Or you could investigate England’s problem with poverty.
  • Discuss the emergence of joint-stock companies. Who profited from them? What is their legacy? You might also want to study their role in early settling attempts.
  • Compare and contrast the Jamestown and Plymouth settlements. You can concentrate on areas such as religion and government.

Barack Obama quote.

  • Why did Americans start revolting? An excellent place to begin might be America’s position in global power struggles. The impact of the European Enlightenment movement is also something to consider.
  • The history of African American culture . Ask yourself these questions: How does it differ from the way it is now? What factors influenced its development?
  • What problems arose during the drafting of the Constitution ? You might want to write about the economic crisis. Other important factors include different interest groups and their expectations.
  • How did the American Revolution influence society? Your essay can be concerned with its immediate or long-term impact. Find out how women, slaves, and other groups reacted to the revolutionary spirit.
  • Consequences of the Royal Proclamation of 1783. American settlers didn’t obey the proclamation, but it still proved to be influential. Your paper could discuss why. Perhaps you’d also like to ponder if it was a good idea.
  • The role of nationalism in the westward expansion . Explore how Americans justified their belief in Manifest Destiny .

Don’t forget to check out these essay topics on early American history:

  • Why did the settlers start importing slaves?
  • How did Texas become a sovereign republic?
  • Why was the American Revolution successful?
  • Discuss the significance of the Louisiana Purchase .
  • What events led to the war of 1812 ?
  • How did the French Revolution impact America?
  • Describe the changes the American Revolution brought to the states.
  • What did “American” mean in the 18 th century?
  • The role of the Sons and Daughters of Liberty in achieving unity.
  • Why was the right to bear arms included in the Bill of Rights ?
  • The first President of the United States .
  • Investigate the origins of the two-party system.
  • Alexander Hamilton’s financial policies: opposition and political consequences .
  • How did Washington, DC become the national capital?
  • Trace the Lewis and Clark expedition.
  • Analyze the importance of cotton for the South’s economy in the 1800s.
  • How did the relations between the settlers and Native Americans develop over time?
  • Who formed the abolitionist movement , and why?
  • How did Kansas become a battleground for proponents and opponents of slavery ?
  • Who were the Border Ruffians?
  • What was the Compromise of 1850 ?
  • Consequences of the Mexican-American war .
  • Long-term influences of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin .
  • Compare the real Underground Railroad with the Underground Femaleroad in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale .
  • The Declaration of Independence and its legacy.
  • What did the philosophy of transcendentalism entail?
  • Abigail Adams and the fight for women’s rights in the new republic.
  • Who was Daniel Shays?
  • Trace the ratification process of the United States’ Constitution .
  • What problems arose with the Missouri Compromise ?
  • The revival of religion in the US after achieving independence.
  • How did the mass immigration of Germans and Irish people impact the US?
  • Nativism in the US: riots and the politics of the Know-Nothings.
  • How did the South and the North respectively argue for and against slavery?
  • Investigate the emergence of the “Old American West.”
  • Study the connection of the blue jeans’ invention with the California gold rush .
  • Describe a day in a life of a slave .
  • Why was the Dred Scott Decision significant?
  • How does the 1860 election relate to the southern states seceding from the Union?
  • Explain the term “ popular sovereignty .”

⚔️ Civil War Topics for Your Paper

In the pre-war period, tensions in the US over state rights and slavery were high. The differences seemed impossible to overcome. Eventually, this led to several southern states seceding from the Union. What followed was the bloodiest war ever to take place on American ground. In writing about the Civil War, you can explore military, political, and social issues.

  • Did the South ever have a chance to win? The conflict seemed to be heavily in favor of the more industrialized North. Still, it took four years of fighting to get the South to surrender. Your essay could examine the South’s underestimated strengths.
  • Compare and contrast the South’s and North’s economic situation on the eve of the Civil War . You might want to investigate the following questions: What did they produce? How did this influence the decision to wage war?
  • How did the Emancipation Proclamation affect the war? You could focus on the contributions of African American soldiers.
  • Discuss the fatal mistakes made on the battlefields of the Civil War . What decisive moments impacted its results the most? Your paper might explore what the generals could have done differently.
  • Was the Civil War inevitable ? It may be interesting to contemplate a possible compromise. In doing so, think about whether this would have merely delayed the war.
  • The general public’s position on the Civil War . It might be compelling to analyze who supported the effort and why. One focal point could be on differences between social classes.
  • The role of beliefs during the Civil War . You could investigate what the South and the North respectively held sacred. Were religious beliefs a crucial motivator for one or both sides?
  • The “Angel of the Battlefield”: Clara Barton. An essay could analyze how she contributed to the recognition of women’s war participation . It could also examine how it forwarded the struggle for women’s rights.

Clara Barton.

  • What were the political reasons to fight the Civil War ? Investigating this question might yield surprising insights.
  • Contrasting Stonewall Jackson and Ulysses Grant might be engaging for those who are interested in military strategies.

Do you want more? Have a look at the following topic samples for high and middle school students:

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  • Analyze why Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address became a critical moment in American history .
  • Was the Civil War justified?
  • Why was Fort Sumter relevant?
  • How did the Civil War battles impact the American social sphere?
  • What does the notion of the “Lost Cause” mean?
  • Would the election of a different man other than Abraham Lincoln as president have prevented the Civil War?
  • Why did many former slaves enlist in the Union army after the Emancipation Proclamation ?
  • Describe the consequences of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination .
  • Why was slavery essential for the South?
  • Foreign US policy during the 1860s.
  • European reactions on the American Civil War .
  • How did Jefferson Davis’ government differ from Abraham Lincoln’s ?
  • Analyze the notion “A rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight.” Why was this especially true in the South?
  • Why did the Union rely heavily on blockades to weaken the Confederation ?
  • Examine how Mary Boykin Chesnut’s A Diary from Dixie reflects on the war.
  • How did the war affect life in the South vs. the North ?
  • Investigate the events that led to the Union victory in 1864-65.
  • Was the abolitionist movement the catalyst for the war ?
  • The impact of industrialization on the battlefield.
  • What technologies emerged during the Civil War?
  • Discuss the societal effects of war photography .
  • How did the Civil War affect the many immigrants who recently entered the United States?
  • Did the American Civil War impact the rest of the globe? If so, how?
  • Can one consider Abraham Lincoln one of the best presidents in American history? If so, why?
  • Compare and contrast the most important generals and their tactics.
  • Debate the influence of Manifest Destiny on exacerbating tensions.
  • What states were devastated the most after the war, and why?
  • Describe the South’s and North’s goals during the Civil War.
  • What does the term “Bleeding Kansas” mean?
  • Newspaper coverage of the Civil War in the South vs. the North.
  • Analyze various letters to understand how people from different backgrounds perceived the Civil War .
  • Art and theater in 1860s America.
  • Debate how sectionalism and protectionism contributed to pre-war tensions in the US.
  • Why did the Crittenden Compromise fail?
  • How did the border states perceive the battles of the Civil War?
  • Explore the war contributions and legacy of Mary Edwards Walker.
  • The importance of the US navy in leading the Union to victory.
  • What happened on the West Coast during the Civil War?
  • Trace a timeline of the Civil War’s key battles.
  • Nation-building and national identity: how did the Civil War shape the idea of “Americanness”?

🛠️ Essay Topics on Reconstruction & Industrialization

After the war, industrialization was rapidly changing the American landscape. Additionally, restoring the order after years of fighting proved a challenge. In abolishing slavery, Republicans took the first step to ensure constitutional rights for African Americans. But not everyone shared the same viewpoints. Dive deeper into these confusing times with one of our topics on American history before 1877:

  • Why did scholars initially view the Reconstruction Era in a bad light ? When answering this question, you can focus on the idea of “Black Supremacism.” You also might want to analyze what compelled them to shift their perspective.
  • Another option is investigating what caused Reconstruction to fail . You can further argue where it succeeded and perhaps offer a new interpretation.
  • Maybe you’d prefer an essay on why the Reconstruction Era mattered . This topic allows you to highlight crucial contemporary debates still relevant today.
  • Tracing the origins of the Ku-Klux-Klan has much to offer. You can link this topic to today and question if handling them has changed.
  • Why did President Johnson veto the enactment of the Civil Rights Act in 1866? It might be interesting to contrast his political reasoning and his personal beliefs.
  • Compare the phases of Reconstruction. How did the concept change from Lincoln’s initial plans to President Johnson’s execution?
  • How did urbanization affect American life? Your paper could contrast life in the city and the countryside. You can take economic, social, and health factors into account.
  • How did the American landscape change during industrialization? You might want to examine city growth and architecture.
  • The invention of electricity was one of the most important events in human history. It might be compelling to wonder what side effects its implementation had.
  • Why not investigate the symbolism of skyscrapers? Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead is a fascinating source for this subject.

But wait, that’s not all of it. We’ve got more, including topics on American history since 1877:

  • Did the situation for freedmen improve after Reconstruction ?
  • How did industrialization affect African Americans?
  • Discuss what consequences the Compromise of 1877 had.
  • The role of transportation during industrialization .
  • How does an assembly line work?

The first ever assembly line was installed by Henry Ford.

  • The invention of the automobile.
  • Describe in what ways mass production affected American society.
  • What was the Panic of 1873?
  • Long-term effects of Plessy v. Ferguson .
  • How did the Freedmen’s Bureau help former slaves?
  • Why did rebuilding the South prove so difficult?
  • Debate the effects of the print revolution on American society.
  • What was the primary goal of Reconstruction ?
  • How did the Reconstruction Act affect politics in the South?
  • What caused the formation of Radical Republicans ?
  • The transformation of leisure in late 19 th century America.
  • Analyze why landownership was a crucial issue in establishing African American equality .
  • Was President Johnson’s attempted impeachment in 1868 justified?
  • How did the US government help exacerbate the wealth gap in the late 19 th century?
  • What changes did transcontinental railroad transportation bring ?
  • How did John D. Rockefeller influence the American economy?
  • The role of oil in industrializing America.
  • Discuss the relevance of the Great Upheaval.
  • Changing gender roles in times of urbanization.
  • Industrialization and Education: obstacles and opportunities for women and African Americans.
  • Analyze how industrialization and urbanization in the USA challenged old values.
  • How did the American newspaper business change in the 19 th century?
  • The impact of sensationalism on the American public.
  • Why did steel become such a crucial material during the late 1800s?
  • What caused the Reconstruction Era to come to an end?
  • How did contemporary cartoons attempt to depict the mood during Reconstruction?
  • What problems did Ulysses S. Grant have to face with his administration?
  • Compare and contrast reconstruction measures in various states.
  • Why did cities become increasingly attractive for America’s rural population in the 19 th century?
  • Examine the significance of the Slaughterhouse Cases.
  • Determine the difference between Presidential Reconstruction and Radical Reconstruction?
  • From the black code to Jim Crow: institutionalized racism in the southern states.
  • The combined rise of populism and imperialism in the 1800s.
  • Discuss the significance of regional differences during industrialization .
  • The impact of labor unions on the American work environment.

🗽 20th Century US History Topics to Write About

By the turn of the century, the US was a significant global player. Events such as the Great Depression affected the whole world. In addition, American contributions to the arts changed the cultural sphere forever. If you’re looking for modern US history thematic essay topics, this section is for you.

  • Why did the “final frontier” gain such importance in the 20 th century? Your essay could examine if the space race was an extension of Manifest Destiny .
  • How did the Titanic’s sinking influence innovation and safety regulations ? The ship was the biggest and most technologically advanced ocean liner at the time. Carrying over 2000 passengers, it sank on its maiden voyage. Investigating its legacy might yield fascinating results.
  • How did progressivism shape the political landscape in America at the turn of the century? In the early 1900s, the USA was almost a different country than it was 50 years prior. How did this happen? And who were the leading figures of this process?
  • Are you curious about the development of American workplace laws? Write about the consequences of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire .
  • If you’re into corporate history, look into the rise and fall of America’s formerly largest retailer, Sears .
  • The real William Randolph Hearst vs. his portrayal in David Fincher’s Mank . This topic allows you to combine film theory and the history of American journalism.
  • The impact of Citizen Kane on movies around the globe. To this day, Citizen Kane is considered one of the most influential films ever made. In a paper on the 1941 masterpiece, you can focus on what made it special. Which features are still prominent in cinema today?
  • How did the eugenics movement affect American society? You might want to investigate marriage laws or forced sterilizations.
  • Consequences of the Spanish-American War . The brief battle didn’t last long, but its impact was immense. Your essay could highlight the war as a stepping stone to making the US a global power.
  • Escalating racial violence: The Rosewood Massacre. In 1923, the entire town of Rosewood, Florida, was wiped out by white aggressors. How did racial tensions get so far?

Haven’t found anything yet? Here are some other American history thesis topics for you to explore:

  • The impact of the Cold War on the American economy.
  • What caused the Great Depression ?
  • Ellis Island as a beacon of hope for immigrants and refugees.
  • The transformation of the American school system in the 1920s.
  • What were pop art’s main concepts?
  • Moral vs. political considerations during the annexation of Hawaii.
  • Who were the Social Gospel preachers?
  • John Dewey’s role in advancing education.
  • What sources fueled American progressivism ?
  • Trace the timeline of Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency.
  • What was laissez-faire capitalism?
  • How did President Woodrow Wilson reform businesses?
  • A dive into the speakeasy culture.
  • How did the widespread availability of cars impact American dating life?
  • Prohibition : reasons and consequences.
  • Connecting arts and civil rights: The Harlem Renaissance .
  • Al Capone and the rise of organized crime in the 1920s.
  • What was the New Deal, and why was it necessary?
  • How did FDR’s “Alphabet Agencies” help the economy after the Great Depression ?
  • Explore the funding of the UN .
  • Discuss the significance of the Berlin Airlift.
  • Screen rebels: how James Dean and Marlon Brando changed American cinema forever.
  • Find a connection between McCarthyism and the Salem Witch Trials .
  • How did affordable television perpetuate the idea of the ideal American family?
  • Analyze the political consequences of the Watergate scandal .
  • A new American culture: variety shows in the 1950s.
  • The origins of Rock’n’roll .
  • What caused the US to slide into inflation in the 1970s?
  • Counterculture literature in the middle of the century: The Beat Generation.
  • The aftermath of the Vietnam War .
  • What made John F. Kennedy a popular president ?
  • The development of Hippie culture in the 1960s.
  • Reproductive rights and the rise of American feminism in the late 20 th century.
  • Intertwining show-business and government: Ronald Reagan’s presidency .
  • Outline the tactical maneuvers of Operation Desert Storm.
  • How did MTV revolutionize the music industry ?
  • Why did drug use become an existential problem in America during the 1970s and 80s?
  • American environmental reform policies from 1960 to 1980.
  • ’70s fashion as a social and political statement in the US.
  • How did the sexual revolution redefine American social life?

🔫 Topics about America in World Wars I & II

America during the World Wars is an engaging writing prompt. But it may be too broad for an essay. That’s why it makes sense to narrow your focus. Which area do you find most interesting about the subject? For example, you can choose between culture, economy, technology, and, of course, the military.

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  • Repressions and progress went hand in hand in the postwar US. Writing about the impact of WWI on domestic American politics would give you various directions to research.
  • President Woodrow Wilson was against entering the war until 1917. What events led the US to break its neutrality?
  • Many Germans of the time called the Treaty of Versailles a “dictate of shame.” It is often considered a significant reason for World War II. What was the US’ position on the Treaty of Versailles?
  • After WWI, America followed isolationist politics. Until 1941, when they declared war on Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor . Could the USA have stayed out of WWII?
  • How did WWII affect the American economy? Think about military needs and rationing.
  • President Woodrow Wilson was a fierce supporter of the League of Nations . But congress coerced him not to have the USA join. Should America have become a member of this organization?

Woodrow Wilson quote.

  • How did American civilians contribute to the war effort? Your essay can focus specifically on women. Be sure to examine new arrangements in daily life.
  • If you’re more into art, why not analyze how the world wars influenced American art?
  • WWII changed all aspects of American life, including their diet. What new methods of food preservation emerged during that time?
  • Another fascinating topic to engage in is propaganda and advertisement in the US during WWII. Your focus might lie on how they targeted different members of society.

Don’t forget to read the rest of our topics on this issue:

  • Evaluate Woodrow Wilson’s 14 points program.
  • How did the American army recruitment work in WWII?
  • “Kilroy was here”: examine where the mysterious slogan comes from.
  • Outline the history of Japanese Americans in Japanese internment camps.
  • US spies: where and how did they operate?
  • The Manhattan Project: trace the making of the atomic bomb .
  • How did migration shape American society in the 1930s and ‘40s?
  • The notion of freedom in America before, during, and after the wars.
  • What role did communication play for the military in WWI vs. WWII?
  • Canadian-American relations during WWII.
  • How did the wars spur transportation developments in the US?
  • Discuss the significance of D-Day .
  • Could the allies have won WWII without the USA?
  • Why did America emerge as a “Global Policeman” after the world wars?
  • The effects of National Socialism in America.
  • In what ways does the outcome of WWII still influence American society today?
  • Compare and contrast military strategies in Europe vs. the Pacific.
  • Was the dropping of the atomic bomb necessary?
  • After the Little Boy’s devastating results, why did the American government decide to drop Fat Man?
  • What made the Zimmerman telegram such a central document for American war participation?
  • What happened to prisoner-of-war camps in the US after the fighting was over?
  • Compare the leadership styles of Franklin D. Roosevelt in WWII and Woodrow Wilson in WWI.
  • Why did the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor ?
  • What methods did the American government use to conceal their operations?
  • Growing up in the ‘40s: how did the war impact the manufacture of toys?
  • Which medical advancements were helpful to American soldiers in WWII that didn’t yet exist in WWI?
  • How did the 1940s fashion in the USA reflect the global situation?
  • Did the two world wars change the civil rights situation for African Americans ? If so, how?
  • How did the war affect employment in the US?
  • What was unique about the Higgins boats?
  • The role of submarines in WWI.
  • How did America cooperate with the allied forces in Europe in WWI?
  • Discuss how the American citizens reacted to being drawn into WWI vs. WWII.
  • Did anyone in the US profit from the wars? If so, who?
  • Describe how American families changed during WWII.
  • What stories do letters that soldiers sent to their families back home tell?
  • Joseph Heller’s depiction of World War II in the novel Catch-22 .
  • Compare and contrast memory culture concerning WWII in Russia vs. the USA.
  • How did the perception of America on the global stage change after World War I?
  • The role of women in the US military .

☮️ Essay Topics About the Civil Rights Movement

The struggle for African American equality finally intensified in the 1950s and 60s. Influential figures such as Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks emerged. Their resilience inspired countless others. Seventy years later, the fight is far from over. The rights of minorities and people of color are still a crucial topic in American society today.

  • Nine months before the Montgomery Bus Boycott , Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat to a white woman. Yet, Rosa Parks is the one commonly associated with sparking the event. Why is Claudette Colvin often ignored in history?
  • Everybody knows Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr , but who were the Civil Rights Movement’s lesser-known figures? Start your research with Aurelia Browder and Susie McDonald.
  • Which concepts and themes can you find in Martin Luther King Jr. ’s I Have A Dream speech ? One idea is to focus on how he expresses hope and freedom for black Americans.

Martin Luther King Jr Quote.

  • Which committees and organizations were central to the Civil Rights Movement’s success ? Discuss the roles of the SNCC, CORE, and NAACP.
  • What makes Malcolm X a controversial figure? Be sure to mention his nationalist ideas and membership in the Nation of Islam.
  • The Little Rock Nine: what made their integration into Little Rock Central High School difficult? In your research paper, you can write about harassment issues and military intervention.
  • What did the Civil Rights Act of 1957 change? On the one hand, you can talk about the history of voter rights. On the other, you might want to investigate how the public reacted to the new law.
  • If you prefer personal stories, you can trace Ruby Bridges’ experiences. She became famous as the first black person to go to an all-white school. She’s still alive today.
  • History can be ugly. If you’re not afraid to encounter violence during your research, check out the Freedom Rides. How did they help attract international attention to the Civil Rights Movement ?
  • Consequences of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. Did the movement die with him? How did the government respond?

Are you curious for more? Have a look at these prompts:

  • Compare the modern Black Lives Matter movement with the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.
  • What did the Black Panthers party achieve?
  • The best way to teach about the Civil Rights Movement in 8 th grade.
  • What happened at the Greensboro sit-ins?
  • Why did the civil rights activists encounter so much violence, even though they mostly protested peacefully ?
  • Compare and contrast Gandhi’s methods and those of Martin Luther King Jr.
  • Why was Bloody Sunday a crucial moment for the Civil Rights Movement ?
  • What was the “long, hot summer”?
  • Examine the creation of the Kerner Commission.
  • The role of students in advancing civil rights for African Americans .
  • What rights did black Americans gain through the Civil Rights Movement ?
  • Describe the Nation of Islam’s goals.
  • Who were the members of the Black Panther Party ?
  • What distinguishes the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s from previous movements to establish more rights for African Americans?
  • Give a brief overview of the most important Supreme Court decisions concerning the struggle for equality.
  • The importance of the church for the Civil Rights Movement.
  • Compare the effects of various marches for freedom.
  • What made Martin Luther King Jr. a great leader for the movement?
  • How did the murder of Emmett Till affect the public’s view on segregation and racism?
  • How did the press support or hinder the Civil Rights Movement ?
  • Loving v. Virginia: legacy and contemporary significance.
  • What did the notion of “miscegenation” entail?
  • What were the Jim Crow laws ?
  • Describe the goals and achievements of Operation Breadbasket.
  • Who was Stokely Carmichael?
  • Analyze Ralph Abernathy’s autobiography And the Walls Came Tumbling Down . Why do some people consider it controversial?
  • Debate the criticism brought up against the Congress of Racial Equality.
  • Why did some civil rights activists in the 1960s radicalize?
  • Did the election of Barack Obama mark the end of the struggle for equal rights?
  • Discuss the success of the Baton Rouge bus boycott.
  • What events led to Lyndon B. Johnson’s signing of the Voting Rights Act?
  • Examine Coretta Scott King’s career after her husband’s passing.
  • Investigate conspiracy theories concerning James Earl Ray’s role in the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
  • The publishing and writing process of Malcolm X’s autobiography .
  • How and why did the 2020 election undermine parts of the Voting Rights Act?
  • Is studying the Civil Rights Movement still relevant today? If so, why?
  • How did CORE help desegregate schools in Chicago?
  • Who is Jesse Jackson?
  • Contemporary commemoration of the Civil Rights Movement .
  • How did John F. Kennedy’s death impact the Civil Rights Movement?

💬 Debatable US History Topics to Research

Controversy has been a constant companion of American history. And it’s not only questionable segregation practices that are up for debate. Women’s and LGBT rights, as well as welfare programs, are issues still unresolved today. If you want argumentative or persuasive essay topics about American history, check out this section.

  • Memories are always socially constructed. “How do various communities around the US perceive monuments of slaveholders?” is an engaging question to explore in your essay.
  • In 1995, an exhibition at the Smithsonian centered around the Enola Gay sparked a nationwide controversy. Critics said the exhibit focused too much on the Japanese suffering the nuclear bomb dropped from the aircraft caused. Was that criticism justified?
  • In the past, Colonial Williamsburg’s issues with slavery were often overlooked. Instead, when creating and developing the historical site, the focus lay on its democratic values. Is Colonial Williamsburg still a good place to learn about American history?
  • What does the Liberty Bell stand for today? You can include recent and older controversies surrounding the location and custody of the bell.
  • Tracing the history of LGBT rights will yield many debatable insights. Which court decisions would you consider especially controversial, and why?
  • The legacy of the Centralia massacre in 1919: are the events linked to the Red Scare ? How did the town try to obscure the truth?
  • In 1887, President Eisenhower supported a campaign to promote patriotism. Part of this was the addition of “under God” to the American Pledge of Allegiance. Analyze the debates surrounding the issue.
  • The history of prostitution laws in the US. Your thesis could suggest a connection between decriminalizing sex work and the workers’ wellbeing.
  • In the 2020 election, several states voted to legalize not only marijuana but also other drugs. History shows many movements to legalize recreational drug use. What was different now?
  • Many older Disney cartoons depict racist stereotypes. The question of adjusting them to modern values sparked much debate. Using this discussion to explore how America should deal with problematic media from the past might be promising.

Keep reading and discover more controversial United States history topics.

  • Did President Barack Obama deserve his Nobel Peace Prize?
  • What did the US gain from the Iraq War ?
  • Would Germany have won WWII without America’s intervention?
  • Should the presidents of the previous century have done more to promote animal rights ?
  • Given its historical context, should we keep celebrating Thanksgiving?
  • Why did it take so long for American women to achieve legally equal rights ?
  • Find historical reasons why the US never instituted universal healthcare .
  • The necessity of cow’s milk in America: past vs. present.
  • Was the annexation of Puerto Rico justified?
  • Did the Chicano Movement achieve positive changes for Mexican Americans?
  • John F. Kennedy’s most controversial presidential actions.
  • The ratification of the 8 th amendment .
  • Was the government’s response to 9/11 justified?
  • The role of faith in American history before 1877 and after.
  • Who or what caused the US’ drug overdose epidemic?
  • HIV/AIDS denialism in America in the 1990s.
  • What should Locust Grove do to restore its deteriorating African American cemetery? Can the place be considered a historical site?
  • Why did some states introduce felon disenfranchisement in 1792? Did the new law spark any outrage?
  • Trace the historical timeline of the same-sex marriage debate .
  • The USA has always been a country of immigrants. How did this lead to immigration being a fiercely discussed topic nowadays?
  • How did the US contribute to the current instability in the Middle East ?
  • Was the “Lost Generation” reckless?
  • How do US historians influence public opinion?
  • Does the Red Scare reflect on Russian-American relations today?
  • Should Bill Clinton have stayed in office ?
  • Discuss the benefits of being a hippie in the 60s.
  • Can the members of the Beat Generation serve as role models for travel enthusiasts today?
  • Roe v. Wade : what made the court case a turning point in the fight for women’s reproductive rights?
  • Did American feminism become too radical by the late 19 th century?
  • The rise and fall of DDT: Why was it allowed in the first place?
  • What should US history education for high school students look like?
  • From a historical perspective, does the reality in Watchmen seem like a likely scenario for the future?
  • Psychiatric methods in early 1900s America.
  • The role of performance-enhancing drugs in the history of American sports achievements.
  • Why do some people believe that the moon landing was staged?
  • Criticism against Ayn Rand’s objectivism and its influence.
  • Before opening America’s first women’s hospital, gynecologist J. Marion Sims experimented on slaves. Should he still be celebrated as the ‘father’ of modern gynecology?
  • Is the notion of “American Century” accurate?
  • American exceptionalism in the 20 th century vs. now.
  • Has technological innovation always been beneficial for the American public?

✊🏿 Black History Topics for an Essay

African American experiences are still very different than those of their white compatriots. That’s why it’s crucial to analyze people of color’s perspectives of and contributions to history. Black history includes thematic topics on education, society, and culture.

  • Steve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave adapts the 1853 memoirs of Solomon Northup. Though the film doesn’t shy away from brutal images, critics argued it was too soft. Should film writers surrender accurate historical representation to make their content more accessible?
  • After the Civil War, slavery was officially banned in the US. Still, the South continued to find ways to exploit black labor. Examine the consequences of new methods such as convict leasing and sharecropping .
  • Many of those who opposed slavery complied with the system by staying silent or inactive. What did this mean for the reality of African Americans ? Why didn’t these people stand up?
  • A paper on what caused the Red Summer of 1919 can focus on the South to North migration of African Americans during WWI.
  • In the 20 th century, the Great Migration relocated many African Americans. How did this event impact the development of black culture? Your paper could concentrate on art movements or political activism.
  • The GI Bill promised financial benefits to veterans. But former black soldiers didn’t profit as much as their white compatriots. To analyze a concrete example of racist inequality, you can write about how the GI Bill affected African American veterans.
  • For decades, American universities did their best to keep African Americans from receiving higher education . How is education inequality still impacting black students today?
  • After WWI, Tulsa was a prosperous city home to the so-called “ Black Wall Street .” Then the Tulsa Race Massacre happened, and the area was left in shambles. Explore the moving history of Tulsa’s Greenwood District.
  • Do you want to investigate the powerful interplay between cinema and reality? Dedicate your essay to the connection between D.W. Griffith’s 1915 picture The Birth of a Nation and the Ku Klux Klan’s revival. What did this mean for black lives in the early 20 th century?
  • Pan-Africanism in the United States: Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Writing about this topic, you might want to highlight African American nationalism in the 20 th century.

Are none of these prompts for you? Don’t worry; we’ve got more African American history paper topics for college students:

  • Booker T. Washington vs. W. E. B. Du Bois : similarities and disagreements.
  • African American innovators who never received credit for their inventions.

The most important African American inventors.

  • From Hiram Rhodes Revels and Shirley Chisholm to Barack Obama: African Americans who paved the way for modern American democracy .
  • Should the US government pay reparations to descendants of former slaves?
  • Sojourner Truth : how did the former slave fight to end injustice?
  • How did job competition in the North intensify racial tensions in the 20 th century?
  • The accomplishments of Dorothy Johnson Vaughan.
  • Ida B. Wells’ legacy and the history of lynching in America.
  • Why do we celebrate Black History Month, and why is it important?
  • What does Juneteenth commemorate?
  • Histories of the most famous black scientists in the United States.
  • How did the geographic distribution of black people in America transform over time?
  • Key activists of the abolitionist movement .
  • How did African Americans contribute to NASA’s success?
  • African Americans in the age of Prohibition: views and effects.
  • Juxtapose the development of black rights and felon rights.
  • Analyze the significance of Marian Anderson’s show on the National Mall for the Civil Rights Movement.
  • African American women in the beauty business: the story of Madame C. J. Walker.
  • What motivated many black Americans to fight in WWI voluntarily?
  • How did enslaved people manage to escape to the Northern states ?
  • Compare the origins and outcomes of the Civil Rights Movement’s various marches.
  • The New Deal’s effect on African Americans.
  • Explore the connection between black history in the US and cotton .
  • What does the term “black flight” mean, and why might the phenomenon be a problem?
  • How did white capping inhibit the development of black communities?
  • What were the goals of the Che Lumumba Club?
  • Analyze the Regents of the University of California v. Bakke case . What did its outcome mean for equality?
  • What makes Angela Davis a crucial figure in the black history discourse?
  • Analyze how Jackie Robinson broke the “color line” to pave the way for African American participation in professional sports.
  • Discuss the long-term consequences of the Tuskegee experiment .
  • How did the Watts Riots affect African American communities in California?
  • Explore the origins of Kwanzaa.
  • African American poetry before 1877: Lucy Terry’s Bars Fight .
  • Not so free after all: enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law.
  • Did the situation for American people of color improve after the implementation of Affirmative Action laws ? If so, how?
  • Trailblazing black Americans in education.
  • How did sports help promote equality for African Americans in the 1900s?
  • Who were the Scottsboro boys?
  • Journalism’s fight for social justice: The Crisis magazine then and now.
  • How did Prohibition help dissolve segregation?

🏞️ Native American Topics to Write About

Much effort has gone into improving the relations between Americans and the indigenous peoples. Unfortunately, this hasn’t always been the case. The history of native Americans is tainted with cruel battles. Taking a closer look reveals the interplay of various cultures and customs.

  • Pocahontas is one of the most renowned figures in Native American history . Compare Pocahontas’ real life vs. how she is depicted in the media. Why was she often romanticized?
  • How did Andrew Jackson’s government justify the Indian Removal Act ? Moral standards during that time and economic reasoning might be a compelling area to focus on.
  • Native American participation in American wars. The colonists fought many battles with each other. France, Spain, and England all competed for the new territory. Did Native Americans participate in these fights? If so, whose side were they on?
  • African peoples were not the only ones who suffered serfdom. Your research paper could cover the colonial enslavement of Native Americans .
  • In the 18 th century, settlers and natives negotiated a variety of treaties. What did they say? Were these treaties ever beneficial for the natives?
  • The Indian Appropriations Act of 1851 organized Native American lives into reservations. What did life look like for natives in these reservations? Additionally, you could examine how reservations affect their lives today.
  • Attempts to deal with Native Americans included assimilation and “civilization.” How did these methods work out? For a concrete example, investigate Henry Pratt’s Carlisle Indian Industrial school.
  • If you want to know more about Indian belief systems, research the emergence of the Ghost Dance. Originating in the late 19 th century, many native communities adapted the new tradition.
  • Geronimo escaped captivity countless times before turning himself in. How did he do that? Your essay can look at his beliefs and this geographical knowledge.
  • The Narragansett was the first tribe to encounter European settlers . What were their relations? How did they develop? Consider territorial struggles and the role of Roger Williams.

Are you looking for something else? Check out these US history essay questions and prompts:

  • Compare and contrast American and Australian historical relations to their native population.
  • What events led to the breakout of King Philip’s War?
  • Ancient Indian burial rituals and modern myths.
  • How did the Cherokees rebuild their lives after the Trail of Tears ?
  • Sacagawea’s contribution to the success of the Lewis and Clark expedition .
  • Great Native American leaders: Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull.
  • What happened at the Battle of the Little Bighorn?
  • Consequences for Native American lives after the proclamation of 1763.
  • The crucial role of Navajo Code Talkers in WWII.
  • How did integration into American culture transform tribal life for different tribes?
  • Explore naming customs of various Native American tribes.
  • Is Black Elk Speaks an accurate representation of Lakota culture?
  • What did the American Indian Movement achieve?
  • What makes the Massacre of Wounded Knee significant?
  • Trace Leonard Peltier’s career in politics and activism.
  • Chief Tecumseh and the Indian confederacy.
  • Compare and contrast the cultures of native tribes from various regions in America before colonization.
  • How did American policies regarding the indigenous population change from the Mayflower’s arrival until now?
  • What happened to California’s extensive Native American population after it became a state?
  • The development of Native American music.
  • Traditional Cherokee farming tools and techniques.
  • Native Americans and religion : what compelled some chiefs to convert to Christianity?
  • How did N. Scott Momaday’s House Made of Dawn shape indigenous cultures’ image for the general public?
  • How did native spiritualism relate to the environment?
  • Gender roles of the Sioux tribe before 1900.
  • The greatest battles between First Nations and Americans.
  • Why were the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, Seminole, and Cherokee considered the “ Five Civilized Tribes ”?
  • America’s first native newspaper: The Cherokee Phoenix and its modern equivalent.
  • How did many of today’s Native Americans become entangled with alcohol and gambling ?
  • Myths and speculations on the ancient origins of indigenous Americans.
  • Economic development of Native American tribes in the 20 th century.
  • Why did Cochise and his Apache warriors raid American settlements?
  • Trace the history of indigenous feminism.
  • What were the blood quantum laws, and why were they introduced?
  • Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill: forging an unlikely friendship.
  • The accomplishments of Oglala Lakota chief Red Cloud.
  • How did the Louisiana Purchase impact First Nations in the region ?
  • The history of Native Americans in law and politics.
  • The political aftermath of the Sand Creek Massacre
  • Cheyenne warrior societies: the emergence of Dog Soldiers as a separate band.

⭐ Topics on Famous People in American History

People shape history. Many of America’s leading historical figures made it to global importance. This section provides you with history essay topics on American artists, presidents, innovators, and more.

  • The “King of Pop” Michael Jackson died a decade ago. Why is he still one of the most debated American celebrities? Your essay could focus on the controversial allegations of child abuse towards him.
  • The social influence of Benjamin Franklin’s journalism is an enticing topic. It allows you to look at the founding father from a different angle. Make sure to include in your essay his desire to educate Americans in morality.
  • John Harvey Kellogg was a progressive healthcare leader. He was also a fierce follower of Adventism. If you endorse obscure things, write about Kellogg’s “warfare with passion.”
  • Mural made Jackson Pollock famous. Reflect on his career before and after the painting. How did the artist find his passion for drip painting?
  • As a First Lady , Betty Ford was a strong advocate for women’s rights. But her political influence didn’t end with her husband’s career. Discuss Betty Ford’s accomplishments after her time in the White House. Mention her addiction and the subsequent establishment of the Betty Ford Center.
  • In 1935, J. Edgar Hoover founded the FBI. In his later years, he became a controversial figure due to his abuses of power . Examine Hoover’s investigations of subversion. What do you find surprising about them?
  • Before his brother’s assassination, Bobby Kennedy wasn’t particularly popular in the US. Analyze his speeches during his political career after the event. What made him a compassionate orator?
  • The Kennedy-Nixon debates provide a rich foundation for those interested in political campaigning . How did the public react to them? What did the polls say? Keep in mind that it was America’s first televised presidential debate.
  • If you seek to combine environmentalism and politics, Al Gore is your man. How did Al Gore shape America’s political discourse in the 2000s? Consider his loss against George Bush in the controversial 2000 election.
  • Literature enthusiasts know Allen Ginsberg for his explicit poem Howl . How did he express his political and social activism in his works? You could focus on his fight for free speech and the Howl trial.

We’ve got more topics on regents and other famous Americans for you to check out:

  • Just Say No: Nancy Reagan and the failure of her anti-drug campaign.
  • Why was Abraham Lincoln such a controversial figure?
  • Kurt Cobain and Nirvana: the voice of the ‘90s youth.
  • Ronald Reagan was an actor before he became president. What drove him into politics?
  • What circumstances made Donald Trump’s presidency possible?
  • Why was Jimmy Carter such an unpopular president?
  • Discuss what Eleanor Roosevelt achieved for women.
  • Stanley Kubrick: was he the greatest filmmaker of the 20 th century?
  • The role of First Ladies before the Civil War.
  • Judith Butler’s influence on American feminism.
  • Margaret Sanger: the initiator of the birth control movement.
  • How did Oprah Winfrey get to where she is now?
  • Steve Jobs and the revolution of computer technology.
  • Research the mysterious Zodiac Killer and his ciphers. Why were many people obsessed with him?
  • How did the Wright Brothers shape the history of aviation?
  • Amelia Earhart’s disappearance: myths and facts.
  • J. Robert Oppenheimer’s contributions to physics.
  • Bruce Lee and the transformation of martial arts.
  • How did O.J. Simpson end up in the US’ most famous car chase?
  • Charles Goodyear and the road to vulcanized rubber.
  • Creating nanotechnology : the legacy of Eric Drexler.
  • Muhammad Ali’s influence on raising awareness for Parkinson’s research.
  • Describe how Bobby Fischer impacted the world of chess.
  • What made Chuck Norris so famous?
  • How did Marilyn Monroe change the American attitude towards sexuality?
  • Truman Capote’s role in advancing LGBT rights.
  • Harper Lee’s biography after the publishing of To Kill A Mockingbird .
  • Transforming science fiction: the legacy of Philip K. Dick .
  • Andy Warhol as a global anti-capitalist icon.
  • Bringing quantum physics forward: the brilliance of Richard Feynman.
  • Samuel Colt and the consequences of inventing the revolver.
  • Analyze the significance of Helen Keller’s work for women’s and disabled persons’ rights.
  • How did Sam Walton become the wealthiest American in 1985?
  • Discuss the importance of Thurgood Marshall for the Civil Rights Movement.
  • What inspired Bill W. to found Alcoholics Anonymous ?
  • Paving the way for gay politicians: the activism of Harvey Milk .
  • What was Louis B. Mayer’s management style with MGM?
  • Walt Disney : who was the person behind the chipper cartoons?
  • Trace EstĂŠe Lauder’s success story.
  • How did Olympia Brown contribute to advance gender equality in the religious sphere?

We hope you found your ideal essay or project topic on US history. Good luck with your assignment!

Further reading:

  • Americanism Essay: Examples, Tips & Topics [2024 Update]
  • 497 Interesting History Topics to Research

460 Excellent Political Topics to Write about in 2024

  • 149 Interesting History Essay Topics and Events to Write about
  • A List of 450 Powerful Social Issues Essay Topics
  • 210 Immigration Essay Topics
  • A List of 175 Interesting Cultural Topics to Write About
  • 512 Research Topics on HumSS (Humanities & Social Sciences)
  • Pre-Columbian to the New Millenium: US History
  • A Brief Guide to Writing the History Paper: Harvard
  • American Civil War: History.com
  • Reconstruction: Encyclopedia Britannica
  • Industrialization and Urbanization in the United States: Oxford Research Encyclopedias
  • The United States in WWI: Khan Academy
  • America Goes to War: The National WWII Museum
  • Controversies: National Council on Public History
  • The 100 Most Significant Americans of All Time: Smithsonian Magazine
  • American History: History Central
  • The 25 Moments From American History That Matter Right Now: Time
  • All Topics: American Historical Association
  • Native American: Library of Congress
  • African American History: National Archives
  • Civil Rights Movement: ADL
  • US 20th Century: Princeton University
  • The Progressive Era: Lumen Learning
  • Timeline: United States History: World Digital Library
  • Explore by Timeline: The New Nation (1783-1860): US General Services Administration
  • The Emergence of Modern America: Smithsonian Institution
  • What Was the Cold War?: National Geographic
  • The Story of the Atomic Bomb: The Ohio State University
  • Continental Feminism: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • The Constitution: The White House
  • The US During World War I: Delaware.gov
  • America in the First World War: The British Library
  • Key Events and Figures of Reconstruction: The City University of New York
  • Reconstruction and Its Impact: IDCA
  • 400 Years since Slavery: a Timeline of American History: The Guardian
  • American Revolution Facts: American Battlefield Trust
  • The Presidents of the United States: Constitution Facts
  • What Caused the American Industrial Revolution: Investopedia
  • Reasons Behind the Revolutionary War: NCpedia
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American History Essay Contest

The American History Essay Contest was established to encourage young people to think creatively about our nation's great history and learn about history in a new light.

This contest is open to students in public, private, and parochial schools, and registered home-study programs. Students in grades five through eight are encouraged to participate. Each year, a selected topic for use during the academic year is announced, and contest instructions are published online and sent to schools by participating DAR chapters. Essays are judged for historical accuracy, adherence to the topic, organization of materials, interest, originality, spelling, grammar, punctuation, and neatness.

Participating chapters send one winning essay from each of the four grades for judging on the state level. The state will send one winning essay from each of the four grades to be judged on a divisional level. The winning essay from each of the four grades will then be judged on the national level and the winners are announced.

Each student participant receives a certificate of participation from the chapter and the chapter winners receive bronze medals and certificates. State winners receive certificates and silver medals. National winners receive special certificates, medals, and a monetary award.

Click here for an informational PDF handout . For additional contest information or guidelines, please contact your local DAR chapter .

Patriots of the American Revolution High School Essay Contest

In preparation for the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding, the DAR has launched the "Patriots of the American Revolution DAR High School Essay Contest.” This contest will focus on the men and women who figured in the events of the American Revolution (1773 – 1783), and it is hoped that students will find Patriots to write about who will interest and inspire them.

These Patriots may be one of our famous Founders, or an everyday man, woman, or child who supported the American Revolution in ways both large and small.  Students will be asked to discuss how their chosen Patriot contributed to the founding of the nation. Essays will be judged for historical accuracy, organization of materials, interest, originality, spelling, grammar, punctuation, and the quality and scope of references, particularly the use of primary sources.

This contest is open to students in public, private, and parochial schools, and registered home-study programs, in grades 9 through 12. Essays from students from all grades will be judged together, with one winning essay chosen at each level. Participating DAR Chapters will select one essay as the chapter winner, to be sent on to the State level; the State will select one essay winner to represent the state for judging at the Division level, and each Division level will also have one winner which will be sent on to the National contest. Each student participant receives a certificate of participation from the chapter and the chapter winners receive a bronze medal and certificate set. State winners receive a silver medal and certificate set. Division level winners receive certificates and a book. National winners receive special certificates, medals, and a monetary award.

The National Society will select first-, second- and third-place winners. The national winner will receive a National Winner Certificate, pin and monetary award, presented at NSDAR’s annual Continental Congress, and the winning essay may appear in official DAR communications. National second- and third-place winners will also receive a certificate and monetary award.

This essay contest is being launched to engage students during the 250 th anniversary of the American Revolution, and is designed to encourage students to think more about the many different people, known and unknown, who were a part of the American Revolution, and perhaps even see themselves in the figures they write about.

For additional contest information or guidelines, please contact your  local DAR chapter .

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Books of The Times

‘The Glorious American Essay,’ From Benjamin Franklin to David Foster Wallace

By John Williams

  • Nov. 25, 2020
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No sane person will read this book the way a reviewer has been conditioned to read books: straight through. And that’s just fine, because “The Glorious American Essay,” though it does contain glories, gets off to a starchy start. The book is organized chronologically, which means it begins with an extended browse through the powdered wig section. Even among dead white men, Cotton Mather, Jonathan Edwards and Thomas Paine are particularly dead and particularly white.

But push through — or save for later — the textbooklike feel of the first 100 pages or so, which also include one of Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist Papers; that still leaves about 800 pages of mostly delight and edification to go. This anthology, which presents 100 exemplary essays from colonial times onward, really gets into gear with Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Experience,” from 1844. It’s a remarkably extended fusillade of aphoristic provocation and insight, inspired in part by the death of his son. “There are moods in which we court suffering,” he wrote, “in the hope that here, at least, we shall find reality, sharp peaks and edges of truth. But it turns out to be scene-painting and counterfeit. The only thing grief has taught me, is to know how shallow it is.”

Phillip Lopate, the book’s editor, writes in his introduction that the essay form has been valued for the freedom it offers to “explore, digress, acknowledge uncertainty.” He quotes Cynthia Ozick judging that “a genuine essay has no educational, polemical or sociopolitical use.” But Lopate isn’t so strict. “Why should a piece of writing,” he asks, “be excluded from the essay kingdom simply because it follows a coherent line of reasoning?” Lopate, especially before he gets to the 20th century, relies heavily on such works of reasoning, pieces of public rhetoric and persuasion, like those by Margaret Fuller, Sarah Moore Grimké and Elizabeth Cady Stanton on the standing and treatment of women in America.

For long stretches this book seems intended as a kind of essay-built history of America, as opposed to a history of American essays — though Lopate points out that those histories are naturally intertwined. And naturally echoing. Many of these essays “speak vividly to our present moment,” he writes, about issues that “keep recurring on the national stage.”

It takes no straining to see his point, repeatedly.

“The moral purity of the white woman is deeply contaminated,” Grimké wrote in 1837, because she looks “without horror” upon the crimes committed against her “enslaved sister.”

An essay from 1890 by Sui Sin Far is, as Lopate describes it, a “pioneering effort by a biracial Asian-American woman to examine the enigma of identity, and the conflict between a minority member’s racial pride and her ability to pass, however inadvertently, as part of the white majority.”

Among the most bracing entries is a speech, barely three pages long, given by John Jay Chapman in 1912, in a small Pennsylvania town, one year after a Black man had been murdered by a mob there. No one had been punished for the crime. Chapman rented a hall for the event but delivered his speech, Lopate writes, “to the two people who bothered to show up.” “The whole community, and in a sense our whole people, are really involved in the guilt,” Chapman said. “The failure of the prosecution in this case, in all such cases, is only a proof of the magnitude of the guilt, and of the awful fact that everyone shares in it.” (In one of the anthology’s most pleasing internal rhymes, a long biographical sketch of Chapman by the literary critic Edmund Wilson pops up later.)

Some of the writers mentioned so far are no longer well known, but the great majority of the essays have august bylines: Douglass, Whitman, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, Du Bois, Twain, Wharton, Mencken, Fitzgerald, Baldwin, Sontag, Didion.

Only occasionally do we freshly re-encounter a neglected author like Mary Austin. “Maybe it is not too late to celebrate her,” Lopate writes, “as one of the pioneering American nature writers and environmentalists,” alongside Thoreau and company. (Thoreau is here, of course; as are John James Audubon, Rachel Carson and Edward Abbey, among others.)

Few people are more qualified than Lopate to assemble this lineup. He has written in nearly every form known to humankind but is perhaps most highly acclaimed for his own collections of personal essays and as a curator of top-shelf anthologies, including “The Art of the Personal Essay” (1994) and “American Movie Critics” (2006).

Lopate tells us in the introduction that he plans two more volumes in this project: one that will focus on the years 1945-70 and another devoted to works from the 21st century. It’s not exactly clear, then, why this book stretches as far as it does. Two-thirds of its essays predate the end of World War II and, at nearly 600 pages, would make a substantial volume of their own. And only five of its selections are from after 2000. Why not end this book at 1945 and save the later essays for the subsequent volumes?

Then again, those extra years allow Lopate to include Ralph Ellison, Vivian Gornick and David Foster Wallace, to name just three. It’s hard to begrudge him that. What does rankle is his decision to order the essays rigidly by year, which sometimes lends an unguided, survey-like feel to the material. One example will suffice: Right between a terrifically coruscating letter from Frederick Douglass to a man who had enslaved him and Martin R. Delany’s “Comparative Condition of the Colored People of the United States” (written just four years later) comes a lengthy review-essay about Hawthorne by Melville. While it’s true that readers will hop around in a collection like this anyway, a bit more navigation would have appealed.

But that’s a quibble, which the substance of this book does plenty to silence. Give in to its choral quality for stretches of time, and it’s easy to feel not just the sweep of our centuries but the dialogical nature of our grandest ideas and most persistent struggles — a notion reflected in an essay by Katharine Fullerton Gerould, another writer to whom I was introduced by this book. In 1935, in “An Essay on Essays,” she wrote in favor of nonpolemical work. A good essay, she said, “inevitably sets the reader to thinking,” and “meditation is highly contagious.”

Follow John Williams on Twitter: @johnwilliamsnyt .

The Glorious American Essay: One Hundred Essays From Colonial Times to the Present Edited and with an introduction by Phillip Lopate 906 pages. Pantheon Books. $40.

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Browse Course Material

Course info.

  • Prof. Caley Horan

Departments

As taught in.

  • American History
  • Modern History

Learning Resource Types

American history since 1865.

For Essay #2 you will choose from one of three essay prompts, each of which addresses major themes and questions from the period between the 1870s and 1930. The prompts are below - please choose only one, and respond to it as clearly and comprehensively as possible.

In his book, The Incorporation of America , historian Alan Trachtenberg argues that “the meaning of America” became “the focus of controversy and struggle” during the final decades of the nineteenth century. 1 Drawing on course lectures and readings, craft an argument that responds to Trachtenberg’s claim and its applicability to the period between 1870 and 1930. Questions to consider in your essay include: How did different groups understand the meaning of “America”? What historical contexts led to controversy and struggle? Did one particular vision for the meaning of “America” win out over others?

Between 1870 and 1930, many communities of color - former slaves, Chinese immigrants, Native Americans, Native Hawaiians, among others - found their lives disrupted and transformed by both government policy and changing understandings of ethnic and racial difference in America. Drawing on course lectures and readings, craft an argument about how American ideas about race and ethnicity changed during the period in question. What historical contexts shaped government policies like conquest, exclusion, and assimilation? How did communities of color respond to these policies and transformations?

The image on the front cover of our course syllabus is one of several panels from the mural “America Today,” painted between 1930 and 1931 by the American artist Thomas Hart Benton. The rest of the panels from the mural can be viewed here . In your essay, place 2–3 of these panels in historical context. How do these paintings reflect key themes and questions from American life at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth? In crafting an argument about the paintings, be sure to place them in conversation with lectures and assigned readings from the course. Avoid statements about artist intent, and focus instead on historical context and what the paintings reflect and reveal from the period in question.

Essay Guidelines

Essays should present an original argument that clearly responds to one of the above prompts. This argument should be unique (of your own making) and should reflect careful engagement with course materials. It should also be clearly expressed and organized, so a reader would have no problem understanding both the overall argument and its progression through your essay. In crafting your argument, you should draw on lectures, discussions, and assigned readings.

Evidence in support of your argument should be drawn entirely from readings assigned in class. This includes recitation handouts and materials from lecture. All essays, regardless of which prompt they respond to, must engage (and cite) a minimum of five assigned readings. At least three of those must be primary source documents.

Essays should be approximately 1250 words in length (please include a word count at the end of your essay), double-spaced, and written in a 12 point font. They should include page numbers, properly formatted footnotes with accurate citations, and a title that reflects the paper’s argument. All sources should be cited using the Chicago Manual of Style (see the Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide ).

Essays will be evaluated according to:

  • The quality of the analysis and argument presented
  • The strength of the evidence marshaled in support of that argument
  • The quality of written expression (this includes style, grammar, and proper citation)

Essay #2 is due during Lecture 13.

1 Alan Trachtenberg, The Incorporation of America: Culture and Society in the Gilded Age (New York: Hill and Wand, 1982), 7.

MIT Open Learning

Early American History Research Paper Topics

Academic Writing Service

Exploring a variety of early American history research paper topics is a fantastic way to deepen your understanding of the foundations of the United States. This page presents a comprehensive guide for students studying history, providing a vast range of topics, practical advice on how to select and approach them, and an in-depth article examining the richness of early American history as a field of study. In addition, iResearchNet’s custom writing services are introduced, offering professional support to students who wish to dive into this compelling subject area. Through this combination of resources, students are empowered to create a captivating and academically rigorous research paper on early American history.

100 Early American History Research Paper Topics

In this section, we will explore a comprehensive list of early American history research paper topics. These topics are divided into 10 categories, each offering a diverse range of subjects for exploration. Whether you are interested in politics, social dynamics, cultural developments, or economic aspects, there is a topic that will captivate your interest. Delve into the rich tapestry of early American history and uncover fascinating research paper topics that will broaden your understanding of this critical period.

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Politics and Government:

  • The influence of colonial charters on the development of early American governance
  • The evolution of colonial assemblies and the rise of self-government
  • Examining the impact of the Albany Plan of Union on colonial unity
  • The role of colonial legislatures in shaping early American political culture
  • The significance of the Stamp Act Congress in the lead-up to the American Revolution
  • Analyzing the creation and ratification of the Articles of Confederation
  • Exploring the debates surrounding the Constitutional Convention and the drafting of the U.S. Constitution
  • The impact of the Federalist and Anti-Federalist papers on American political thought
  • Investigating the origins and consequences of the Alien and Sedition Acts
  • Examining the influence of early political parties on the formation of American democracy

Social and Cultural Transformations:

  • The interactions between Native American tribes and European settlers in the early colonial period
  • The role of religion in shaping early American society and culture
  • Exploring the impact of the Great Awakening on religious practices and social values
  • Analyzing the institution of slavery and its effects on early American society
  • The emergence of religious toleration and religious freedom in the colonies
  • Investigating the social dynamics and gender roles in early American communities
  • The influence of Enlightenment ideas on the intellectual and cultural development of early America
  • Examining the role of education and the establishment of early American universities
  • The cultural assimilation of different immigrant groups and their contributions to early America
  • Exploring the development of early American literature, art, and architecture

Economic and Trade:

  • Analyzing the impact of the Columbian Exchange on the economies of early America
  • The role of mercantilism and the Navigation Acts in shaping colonial trade policies
  • Investigating the development of the triangular trade and the Atlantic slave trade
  • The rise of colonial industries and the growth of regional economies
  • The impact of the American Revolution on trade and commerce
  • The significance of the Embargo Act of 1807 in early American economic history
  • Exploring the role of early American banks and financial institutions
  • Analyzing the economic consequences of westward expansion and the Louisiana Purchase
  • Investigating the emergence of early American capitalism and the growth of the market economy
  • Examining the effects of the War of 1812 on early American trade and industry

Native American History:

  • The interactions between Native American tribes and European colonizers
  • Exploring the impact of disease on Native American populations
  • Investigating the role of Native American alliances in shaping the outcome of colonial conflicts
  • The effects of land dispossession and forced removal on Native American communities
  • The cultural, social, and political resilience of Native American tribes in the face of colonization
  • Examining the cultural exchange and adaptation between Native Americans and European settlers
  • The role of Native American leaders and warriors in early American conflicts
  • Exploring the impact of the Indian Removal Act on Native American sovereignty
  • The effects of reservation policies and assimilation efforts on Native American communities
  • Investigating contemporary Native American activism and the ongoing struggle for rights and recognition

Revolutionary War and Independence:

  • The causes and catalysts of the American Revolution
  • Analyzing the role of key individuals, such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, in the Revolutionary War
  • The impact of foreign assistance, particularly from France, on the outcome of the Revolution
  • The experiences of soldiers and civilians during the Revolutionary War
  • Investigating the ideological foundations of American independence and the Declaration of Independence
  • Examining the impact of Revolutionary War battles, such as Saratoga and Yorktown
  • The effects of the Treaty of Paris (1783) and the establishment of the United States
  • Exploring the challenges of nation-building and creating a system of government after the Revolution
  • The significance of the Federalist Papers in the ratification of the U.S. Constitution
  • Investigating the debates over individual rights and the inclusion of a Bill of Rights in the Constitution

Slavery and Abolition:

  • The origins and development of slavery in the early American colonies
  • Exploring the experiences of enslaved individuals and the resistance against slavery
  • Investigating the impact of the American Revolution on the institution of slavery
  • The role of early abolitionist movements and individuals in the fight against slavery
  • Analyzing the economic, social, and political implications of the cotton gin and the expansion of slavery
  • The Underground Railroad and the network of abolitionist activities
  • Examining the impact of the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850 on the slavery debate
  • The significance of the Dred Scott case and its role in deepening sectional tensions
  • Investigating the role of African Americans in the Civil War and the fight for emancipation
  • The effects of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment on the abolition of slavery

Early American Women:

  • Exploring the experiences of women in colonial America
  • The role of women in early American politics and social movements
  • Analyzing the impact of the American Revolution on women’s rights and gender roles
  • Investigating the contributions of early American women writers, artists, and intellectuals
  • The emergence of women’s suffrage movements in the 19th century
  • Examining the role of women in education and the establishment of female seminaries
  • The experiences of enslaved women and their resistance against oppression
  • Exploring the impact of the Seneca Falls Convention and the Declaration of Sentiments
  • Investigating the intersectionality of race and gender in early American women’s history
  • The effects of the Civil War and Reconstruction on women’s rights and social status

Immigration and Ethnicity:

  • Analyzing the patterns of immigration to early America and the motivations of different immigrant groups
  • The experiences of Irish immigrants and their role in early American society
  • Investigating the contributions of German immigrants to early American culture and industry
  • Exploring the experiences of Italian, Polish, and Eastern European immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries
  • The impact of Chinese and Asian immigration on early American history
  • Examining the challenges faced by immigrant communities and the establishment of ethnic enclaves
  • Analyzing the nativist movements and the rise of anti-immigrant sentiment in the early 19th century
  • The effects of immigration policies, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Immigration Act of 1924
  • Investigating the experiences of African American migrants during the Great Migration
  • Exploring the cultural contributions of different immigrant groups to early American society

Early American Military History:

  • Analyzing the conflicts between European powers for control of North America
  • The role of Native American tribes in early American military engagements
  • Investigating the French and Indian War and its impact on the balance of power in North America
  • Examining the strategies and tactics of American Revolutionary War commanders
  • The significance of key battles, such as Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill, and Trenton
  • The experiences of soldiers and civilians during the War of 1812
  • Analyzing the Mexican-American War and its consequences for American expansion
  • The role of military leaders, such as Andrew Jackson and Winfield Scott, in early American conflicts
  • Investigating the impact of the Civil War on military tactics and technology
  • Examining the effects of the Spanish-American War and the emergence of the United States as a global power

Religion and Early American Society:

  • Exploring the religious diversity of early American colonies
  • Analyzing the role of Puritanism in shaping the social and cultural landscape of New England
  • Investigating the religious revival movements of the Great Awakening and their impact on early American society
  • The religious tensions and conflicts in the Salem Witch Trials
  • Examining the establishment of religious freedom and the separation of church and state
  • The role of religious denominations, such as Quakers, Baptists, and Methodists, in early American society
  • Analyzing the impact of religious missionaries on Native American communities
  • Exploring the religious dimensions of the abolitionist and women’s rights movements
  • Investigating the religious aspects of the Second Great Awakening and its influence on American culture
  • The role of religion in shaping early American moral and ethical values

This comprehensive list of early American history research paper topics provides a wide range of subjects for students to explore and delve into the fascinating world of colonial America. From politics and social dynamics to economics, culture, and religion, there is a topic to pique the interest of every history enthusiast. By choosing a research paper topic from these categories, students can engage with the rich historical context and develop a deeper understanding of the complexities and dynamics that shaped early America. So, embark on this intellectual journey and uncover the untold stories and hidden gems of early American history through your research paper.

Early American History: Exploring the Range of Research Paper Topics

Early American history is a captivating and pivotal period that laid the foundation for the United States as we know it today. From the arrival of European explorers to the establishment of the thirteen colonies, this era is filled with significant events, influential figures, and cultural transformations that shaped the course of the nation’s history. For students studying history and embarking on research papers, early American history offers a vast and diverse range of fascinating topics to explore. In this article, we will delve into the rich tapestry of early American history and highlight the variety of research paper topics available, providing students with a glimpse into the complexities and significance of this era.

Cultural Encounters and Interactions

One intriguing aspect of early American history is the encounters and interactions between different cultural groups. The arrival of European explorers in the Americas brought together diverse societies, including indigenous peoples, European settlers, and African slaves. Researching the cultural exchange during this period can shed light on the complexities of early American history. Topics to consider include the impact of European exploration on indigenous populations, the cultural resilience of Native American tribes, the influence of African cultures on colonial societies, and the development of a distinct American identity shaped by these encounters.

Exploring the various forms of cultural exchange can provide insights into the dynamics of power, cultural adaptation, and resistance that defined early American history. Students can delve into specific case studies, such as the interactions between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag tribe, the fur trade and its impact on Native American communities, or the cultural assimilation of enslaved Africans in the colonies. By examining these encounters, students can analyze the complexities of cross-cultural interactions and their long-lasting consequences.

Social and Economic Dynamics

Understanding the social and economic dynamics of early American society is essential for comprehending the development of the colonies. The colonial period was characterized by diverse economic systems, such as the plantation economy in the South and the mercantile economy in the North. Exploring the economic, social, and political aspects of this period can provide insights into the factors that influenced the growth and transformation of colonial society.

Students can explore the economic systems of early America by examining topics such as the role of indentured servitude, the establishment of cash crops like tobacco and rice, the development of trade networks, and the emergence of cities as economic centers. They can also investigate the social hierarchies that shaped colonial society, including the distinctions between social classes, the role of gender and family dynamics, and the impact of religious beliefs on daily life.

Political Movements and Revolutionary Ideals

The quest for political autonomy and the seeds of revolution began to take root in the colonies during this period. Investigating the political landscape and revolutionary ideals can provide valuable insights into the motivations and aspirations of early American colonists. Students can explore the ideas and ideologies that shaped the revolutionary spirit, the events that fueled the desire for independence, and the key figures who played significant roles in the American Revolution.

Research paper topics could include the influence of Enlightenment thinkers, such as John Locke and Thomas Paine, on revolutionary ideology, the causes and consequences of key events like the Boston Tea Party and the Stamp Act, and the significance of founding documents like the Declaration of Independence in shaping the nation’s identity. Additionally, students can examine the challenges faced by the colonists, the strategies employed in the fight for independence, and the formation of early American governments.

Struggles for Equality and Identity

The colonial period also witnessed struggles for equality and the formation of cultural and social identities. Researching the experiences of marginalized groups, such as women, African Americans, and Native Americans, provides a deeper understanding of social dynamics and the complexities of early American society. By exploring their perspectives and contributions, students can gain insights into the challenges and triumphs of these groups in shaping the nation.

Topics in this area could include the role of women in colonial society and their involvement in political movements, the institution of slavery and its impact on African American communities, the experiences and resistance of Native American tribes to colonial expansion, and the development of distinct regional and national identities. Students can analyze primary sources, such as diaries, letters, and newspapers, to uncover the voices of those who have often been marginalized in traditional historical narratives.

Early American history is a captivating period filled with rich narratives, significant events, and diverse cultural interactions. Exploring the range of research paper topics in early American history allows students to delve into the complexities and significance of this era. By examining cultural encounters, socioeconomic dynamics, political movements, struggles for equality, and the formation of identity, students gain a deeper understanding of the events, people, and ideas that laid the foundation for the United States. As they embark on their research journeys, they will uncover the untold stories, legacies, and lessons from early American history, gaining a broader perspective on the nation’s past and its enduring impact on the present. By delving into these research paper topics, students have the opportunity to contribute to the ongoing exploration and understanding of early American history.

Choosing Early American History Research Paper Topics

Selecting the right research paper topic is crucial to the success of your project. It sets the foundation for your investigation and determines the depth and breadth of your research. In the field of early American history, there are numerous fascinating topics to explore, each offering its own unique insights and opportunities for discovery. In this section, we will provide expert advice on choosing early American history research paper topics, helping you navigate the vast array of options and select a topic that aligns with your interests and academic goals.

  • Narrow down your focus : Early American history spans a vast period and covers a wide range of events, people, and themes. To choose an effective research paper topic, it is essential to narrow down your focus. Consider specific time periods, such as the colonial era, the American Revolution, or the early republic. Alternatively, you can concentrate on specific regions, such as New England, the Southern colonies, or the frontier. By narrowing your focus, you can delve deeper into the subject matter and provide a more comprehensive analysis.
  • Follow your passion : Passion is a key ingredient for a successful research paper. Select a topic that genuinely interests you and ignites your curiosity. Whether it’s exploring the lives of influential figures like Benjamin Franklin or Thomas Jefferson, investigating the impact of religious movements, or delving into the experiences of marginalized groups, choose a topic that resonates with your intellectual and personal interests. Your enthusiasm will fuel your research and enable you to produce a more engaging and insightful paper.
  • Identify knowledge gaps : Research is driven by the desire to expand knowledge and uncover new perspectives. As you consider potential research paper topics, identify knowledge gaps or underexplored areas in early American history. Look for topics that have received less scholarly attention but offer significant potential for exploration and discovery. This could involve examining lesser-known events, shedding light on marginalized voices, or challenging existing interpretations. By addressing these gaps, your research can make a unique and valuable contribution to the field.
  • Utilize primary and secondary sources : To develop a strong research paper, it is essential to utilize both primary and secondary sources. Primary sources provide firsthand accounts, documents, and artifacts from the period under study, while secondary sources offer analysis and interpretations by historians. When selecting a research topic, consider the availability of primary and secondary sources related to your chosen subject. Access to reliable and diverse sources will ensure a well-rounded and comprehensive investigation.
  • Consider interdisciplinary approaches : Early American history intersects with various disciplines, including literature, sociology, anthropology, political science, and more. Consider adopting an interdisciplinary approach when selecting your research topic. This allows you to explore connections and influences between different aspects of early American history and other fields of study. For example, you might analyze the representation of early American history in literature or examine the social and cultural impact of political ideologies. By integrating multiple perspectives, you can offer a more nuanced analysis of your chosen topic.
  • Engage with historiographical debates : The field of early American history is rich with historiographical debates—ongoing discussions and disagreements among historians. These debates provide an excellent opportunity for research and analysis. Consider choosing a topic that aligns with a particular historiographical debate. By examining the different interpretations and arguments put forth by historians, you can contribute to the ongoing dialogue and present your own analysis and conclusions.
  • Consult with your instructor or advisor : Don’t hesitate to seek guidance from your instructor or advisor when selecting your research paper topic. They can provide valuable insights, recommend relevant sources, and help you narrow down your focus. Discuss your interests and ideas with them to receive feedback and suggestions for refining your topic. Their expertise and experience will ensure that your research is focused, relevant, and academically rigorous.

Choosing the right research paper topic is a critical step in the process of studying early American history. By narrowing down your focus, following your passion, identifying knowledge gaps, utilizing primary and secondary sources, considering interdisciplinary approaches, engaging with historiographical debates, and seeking guidance from your instructor or advisor, you can select a compelling and meaningful topic for your research paper. Remember, the topic you choose should not only align with your academic goals but also ignite your curiosity and passion. Embrace the opportunity to delve into the rich tapestry of early American history and contribute to the ongoing exploration and understanding of this pivotal era.

How to Write an Early American History Research Paper

Writing a research paper in the field of early American history requires careful planning, thorough research, and effective organization. By following a systematic approach, you can navigate the complexities of the subject matter and produce a well-structured and insightful paper. In this section, we will provide you with a step-by-step guide on how to write an early American history research paper, from formulating a thesis statement to presenting your findings and conclusions.

  • Formulate a compelling thesis statement : A strong thesis statement serves as the foundation of your research paper. It succinctly states the main argument or purpose of your study. When formulating your thesis statement, ensure that it is specific, focused, and debatable. It should reflect the central theme or question that your paper aims to explore. For example, your thesis statement could address the impact of the American Revolution on the development of early American society or analyze the influence of religious beliefs on colonial governance. Make sure to refine and revise your thesis statement as you progress in your research.
  • Conduct extensive research : Thorough research is essential for producing a comprehensive and well-supported research paper. Utilize a combination of primary and secondary sources to gather relevant information and evidence. Primary sources may include historical documents, letters, diaries, newspapers, and firsthand accounts from the period. Secondary sources, such as scholarly articles and books, provide analysis and interpretations by historians. Consult reputable databases, archives, and libraries to access a wide range of sources. Take detailed notes, organize your findings, and keep track of your sources for proper citation.
  • Organize your paper : Effective organization is key to presenting your research in a logical and coherent manner. Begin by creating an outline that outlines the main sections and subtopics of your paper. Typically, an early American history research paper includes an introduction, literature review, methodology (if applicable), main body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Ensure that each section flows smoothly and supports your thesis statement. Use clear headings and subheadings to guide your reader through the paper. Consider the chronology of events or thematic categories to structure your arguments.
  • Analyze and interpret primary sources : Primary sources provide valuable insights into the historical context and perspectives of early American history. Analyze and interpret these sources to support your arguments and shed light on the topic you are investigating. Pay attention to the biases, limitations, and possible interpretations of the sources. Engage critically with the primary materials and draw connections between different sources to develop a nuanced understanding of the subject matter. Quote or paraphrase relevant passages, providing proper citations to give credit to the original authors.
  • Engage with secondary sources and historiography : Secondary sources offer scholarly analysis and interpretations of early American history. Engage with these sources to situate your research within the existing historiography. Identify key debates, arguments, and perspectives within the field and critically assess their relevance to your research topic. Use secondary sources to support or challenge your arguments, demonstrating a thorough understanding of the existing scholarship. Provide in-text citations and include a comprehensive bibliography to acknowledge the contributions of other historians.
  • Present your findings and analysis : In the main body paragraphs of your research paper, present your findings and analysis in a clear and organized manner. Develop coherent arguments supported by evidence from your research. Use topic sentences to introduce each paragraph and ensure smooth transitions between paragraphs. Provide detailed explanations and interpretations of your sources, demonstrating your ability to critically analyze the historical material. Incorporate relevant examples, data, or statistics to strengthen your arguments.
  • Craft a compelling conclusion : The conclusion of your research paper should summarize your main findings, restate your thesis statement, and provide a sense of closure to your paper. Reflect on the significance of your research in the context of early American history. Discuss any implications or broader insights that your study may have uncovered. Avoid introducing new information in the conclusion and instead focus on synthesizing your research and leaving a lasting impression on the reader.
  • Revise, edit, and proofread : Revision is a vital step in the writing process. Review your research paper for clarity, coherence, and logical flow. Ensure that your arguments are well-supported, and your ideas are effectively communicated. Edit for grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors. Pay attention to formatting guidelines and ensure proper citation of all sources. Consider seeking feedback from peers, instructors, or academic writing centers to gain valuable insights and suggestions for improvement.

Writing an early American history research paper requires a systematic and disciplined approach. By formulating a compelling thesis statement, conducting extensive research, organizing your paper effectively, analyzing primary and secondary sources, engaging with historiography, presenting your findings and analysis, and crafting a compelling conclusion, you can produce a well-structured and insightful research paper. Remember to revise, edit, and proofread your work to ensure its clarity and academic rigor. Embrace the opportunity to contribute to the field of early American history and advance our understanding of this important era.

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How to Tell 400 Years of Black History in One Book

From 1619 to 2019, this collection of essays, edited by two of the nation’s preeminent scholars, shows the depth and breadth of African American history

History Correspondent

Black Americans along with a wharf

In August of 1619, the English warship White Lion sailed into Hampton Roads, Virginia, where the conjunction of the James, Elizabeth and York rivers meet the Atlantic Ocean. The White Lion ’s captain and crew were privateers, and they had taken captives from a Dutch slave ship. They exchanged, for supplies, more than 20 African people with the leadership and settlers at the Jamestown colony. In 2019 this event, while not the first arrival of Africans or the first incidence of slavery in North America , was widely recognized as inaugurating race-based slavery in the British colonies that would become the United States.

That 400th anniversary is the occasion for a unique collaboration: Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 , edited by historians Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain. Kendi and Blain brought together 90 black writers—historians, scholars of other fields, journalists, activists and poets—to cover the full sweep and extraordinary diversity of those 400 years of black history. Although its scope is encyclopedic, the book is anything but a dry, dispassionate march through history. It’s elegantly structured in ten 40-year sections composed of eight essays (each covering one theme in a five-year period) and a poem punctuating the section conclusion; Kendi calls Four Hundred Souls “a chorus.”

The book opens with an essay by Nikole Hannah-Jones, the journalist behind the New York Times ’ 1619 Project , on the years 1619-1624, and closes with an entry from Black Lives Matter co-creator Alicia Garza writing about 2014-19, when the movement rose to the forefront of American politics. The depth and breadth of the material astounds, between fresh voices, such as historisn Mary Hicks writing about the Middle Passage for 1694-1699, and internationally renowned scholars, such as Annette Gordon-Reed writing about Sally Hemings for 1789-94. Prominent journalists include, in addition to Hannah-Jones, The Atlantic ’s Adam Serwer on Frederick Douglass (1859-64) and New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie on the Civil War (1864-69). The powerful poems resonate sharply with the essays, Chet’la Sebree’s verses in “And the Record Repeats” about the experiences of young black women, for example, and Salamishah M. Tillet’s account of Anita Hill’s testimony in the Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

“We are,” Kendi writes in the introduction collectively of black Americans, “reconstructing ourselves in this book.” The book itself, Blain writes in the conclusion, is “a testament to how much we have overcome, and how we have managed to do it together, despite our differences and diverse perspectives.” In an interview, Blain talked about how the project and the book’s distinctive structure developed, and how the editors imagine it will fit into the canon of black history and thought. A condensed and edited version of her conversation with Smithsonian is below.

Preview thumbnail for 'Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019

Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019

Four Hundred Souls is a unique one-volume “community” history of African Americans. The editors, Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain, have assembled 90 brilliant writers, each of whom takes on a five-year period of that four-hundred-year span.

How did the Four Hundred Souls book come about?

We started working on the project in 2018 (it actually predates the [publication of] the New York Times 1619 Project.) Ibram reached out to me with the idea that with the 400th year anniversary of the first captive Africans arriving in Jamestown, maybe we should collaborate on a project that would commemorate this particular moment in history, and look at 400 years of African American history by pulling together a diverse set of voices.

The idea was that we'd be able to create something very different than any other book on black history. And as historians, we were thinking, what would historians of the future want? Who are the voices they would want to hear from? We wanted to create something that would actually function as a primary source in another, who knows, 40 years or so—that captures the voices of black writers and thinkers from a wide array of fields, reflecting on both the past but also the present too.

Did you have any models for how you pulled all these voices together?

There are a couple of models in the sense of the most significant, pioneering books in African American history. We thought immediately of W.E.B. De Bois' Black Reconstruction in America in terms of the scope of the work, the depth of the content, and the richness of the ideas. Robin D.G. Kelley's Freedom Dreams is another model, but more recent. Martha Jones' Vanguard , is a book that captures decades right of black women's political activism and the struggle for the vote in a way that I think, does a similar kind of broad, sweeping history. Daina Ramey Berry and Kali N. Gross's Black Woman's History of the United States is another.

But ours was not a single authored book or even an edited collection of just historians. We didn't want to produce a textbook, or an encyclopedia. We wanted this work to be, as an edited volume, rich enough and big enough to cover 400 years of history in a way that would keep the reader engaged from start to finish, 1619 to 2019. That’s part of the importance of the multiple different genres and different voices we included moving from period to period.

How does Four Hundred Souls reflect the concept of a community history?

We figured that community would show up in different ways in the narrative, but we were really thinking initially, how do we recreate community in putting this book together? One of the earliest analogies that Ibram used was describing this as a choir. I love this—he described the poets as soloists. And then in this choir, you'd have sopranos, you'd have tenors, and you’d have altos. And so the question was: Who do we invite to be in this volume that would capture collectively that spirit of community?

We recognized that we could never fully represent every single field and every single background, but we tried as much as possible. And so even in putting together the book, there was a moment where we said, for example, "Wait a minute, we don't really have a scholar here who would be able to truly grapple with the sort of interconnection between African American History and Native American history." So we thought, is there a scholar, who identifies as African American and Native American and then we reached out to [UCLA historian] Kyle Mays .

So there were moments where we just had to be intentional about making sure that we were having voices that represented as much as possible the diversity of black America. We invited Esther Armah to write about the black immigrant experience because what is black America without immigrants? The heart of black America is that it's not homogenous at all—it's diverse. And we tried to capture that.

We also wanted to make sure that a significant number of the writers were women, largely because we acknowledge that so many of the histories that we teach, that we read, and that so many people cite are written by men. There's still a general tendency to look for male expertise, to acknowledge men as experts, especially in the field of history. Women are often sidelined in these conversations . So we were intentional about that, too, and including someone like Alicia Garza, one of the founders of Black Lives Matter, we wanted to acknowledge the crucial role that black women are playing in shaping American politics to this very day.

How did historians approach their subjects differently than say, creative writers?

One of the challenges with the book, which turned out to be also an opportunity, was that we were focusing on key historical moments, figures, themes and places in the United States, each within in a very specific five-year period. We actually spent a lot of time mapping out instructions for authors. It wasn't just: “Write a piece for us on this topic.” We said, “Here's what we want and what we don't want. Here's what we expect of you ask these questions as you're writing the essay, make sure you're grappling with these particular themes.”

But they also had to have a bit of freedom, to look backward, and also to look forward. And I think the structure with a bit of freedom worked, it was a pretty nice balance. Some essays the five years just fit like a glove, others a little less so but the writers managed to pull it off.

We also spent a lot of time planning and carefully identifying who would write on certain topics. “Cotton,” which memoirist Kiese Laymon wrote about for 1804-1809, is a perfect example. We realized very early that if we asked a historian to write about cotton, they would be very frustrated with the five-year constraint. But when we asked Kiese, we let him know that we would provide him with books on cotton and slavery for him to take a look at. And then he brought to it his own personal experience, which turned out to be such a powerful narrative. He writes, “When the land is freed, so will be all the cotton and all the money made off the suffering that white folks made cotton bring to Black folks in Mississippi and the entire South.”

And so that's the other element of this too. Even a lot of people wondered how we would have a work of history with so many non-historians. We gave them clear guidance and materials, and they brought incredible talent to the project.

The New York Times ’ 1619 project shares a similar point of origin, the 400th anniversary of the arrival of enslaved Africans to colonial America. What did you make of it when it came out last year?

When the 1619 Project came out, [Ibram and I] were thrilled, because actually, it, in so many ways, complemented our vision for our project. Then we decided we really had to invite Nikole Hannah-Jones to contribute. We weren't sure who we would ask for that first essay, but then we were like, "You know what? This makes sense."

I know there are so many different critiques, but for me, what is most valuable about the project is the way that it demonstrates how much, from the very beginning, the ideas and experiences of black people have been sidelined.

This is why we wanted her to write her essay [about the slave ship White Lion .] Even as someone who studied U.S. history, I did not even know about the White Lion for many years. I mean, that's how sad it is…but I could talk about the Mayflower . That was part of the history that I was taught. And so what does that tell us?

We don't talk about 1619 the way that we do 1620. And why is that? Well, let's get to the heart of the matter. Race matters and racism, too, in the way that we even tell our histories. And so we wanted to send that message. And like I said, to have a complementary spirit and vision as the 1619 Project.

When readers have finished going through 400 Souls , where else can they read black scholars writing on black history?

One of the things that the African American Intellectual History Society [Blain is currently president of the organization] is committed to doing is elevating the scholarship and writing of Black scholars as well as a diverse group of scholars who work in the field of Black history, and specifically Black intellectual history.

Black Perspectives [an AAIHS publication] has a broad readership, certainly, we're reaching academics in the fields of history and many other fields. At the same time, a significant percentage of our readers are non-academics. We have activists who read the blog, well known intellectuals and thinkers, and just everyday lay people who are interested in history, who want to learn more about black history and find the content accessible.

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Karin Wulf | | READ MORE

Karin Wulf is the director of the John Carter Brown Library and a historian at Brown University. She was previously the executive director of the Omohundro Institute of American History & Culture and a professor of history at William & Mary.

The Colonial Period of the USA Essay

Introduction.

The colonial period of the USA refers to the history of the land that was going to become the US in the future, and lasts from the beginning of European settlement to the very independence from Europe, and it includes the history of the thirteen colonies of Britain which announced themselves independent in 1776. The years of colonial domination led to essential differentiation of the population, which inevitably led to the revolt.

The period 1680-1730 is regarded to be the most essential, as the colonists, afraid that thorough imperial control would lead to the restricted trade and liberties, decided, that it would be better to keep the imperial powers away, and decided that the better option is the power of the weapon. When the Glorious Revolution toppled James in 1689, revolts in Massachusetts and New York conquered the Dominion of New England and deposed the government in Maryland.

Political arrangements were never totally standardized, but by the early eighteenth century eight of the thirteen existing colonies had a royal ruler, assemblies convened annually in every prefecture, and a steady royal polity had attained its solid form.

By 1715, all of the colonies had also attained substantial social constancy: family formation had attained levels that permitted self-sustaining expansion. For the next fifty years, the burgeoning dimension would catalyze complex communal arrangements. Enjoying plenty of harvests, sufficient fuel imports, and a favorable disease situation, colonial inhabitants multiplied at almost the maximum probable rate of natural augment.

Regional patterns of farming and agricultural abroad sales increased. The South concentrated in staples cultivated chiefly by slaves: tobacco from the Chesapeake, rice from the Carolina Georgia tidewater, and indigo plants from the Carolina piedmont. Colonies supplied huge amounts of goods in the North, which further transformed into a more mixed agricultural organization. Mid-Atlantic farmers grew wheat, which in raw or processed forms was in second place in export in 1700. With horticulture limited by rocky soils, New Englanders exported fish and whale products along with other marines, livestock, and rum.

Southern products, valued as re-exports or military requirements were under strict British control. The Navigation Acts mandated transporting them to England, and British vendors owned the ships enlisted. Northern goods were less important, hence less controlled, and carried more often in royally hulls. Long before 1776, the South and North started following various developmental ways. Southerners reinvested their incomes in land and slaves without expanding their possessions; northerners invested in different enterprises, increasing the financial differentiation.

By 1730, typical prototypes distinguished colonial areas from each other. New England’s towns gained a rank of Congregational establishment and ethnocentrism for egalitarianism, moralism, and xenophobia. The Mid-Atlantic colonies stayed ethnically and religiously heterogeneous, and their various interest groups forcing the exterior of long-term partisan political blocs in Pennsylvania and New York earlier than somewhere else. The South colonies had the largest population because of slave labor, and British markets, the highest per-capita profits, and the wealthiest, most powerful mainland elite.

These 50 years appeared to be the most essential in the history of the colonial period, as the occasions, that took place within 1680-1730 became fundamental for the differentiation of North and South, and this differentiation, as it is known, led to the revolt, and independence of thirteen colonies.

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IvyPanda. (2022, May 12). The Colonial Period of the USA. https://ivypanda.com/essays/american-colonial-history/

"The Colonial Period of the USA." IvyPanda , 12 May 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/american-colonial-history/.

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IvyPanda . 2022. "The Colonial Period of the USA." May 12, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/american-colonial-history/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Colonial Period of the USA." May 12, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/american-colonial-history/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The Colonial Period of the USA." May 12, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/american-colonial-history/.

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543 American History Essay Topics & Good Ideas

18 January 2024

last updated

Exploring the multifaceted nature of American history provides a wide range of thought-provoking essay topics. Basically, there are many subjects that can be analyzed, studying the country’s indigenous origins, its struggle for independence, its participation in world wars, the civil rights movement, technological advancements, ongoing sociopolitical discourse, and others. In the United States (US), some themes can focus on significant events, like the Revolutionary War or the Space Race, important figures, such as Abraham Lincoln, Rosa Parks, or Martin Luther King Jr., or major periods, including the Great Depression or the Cold War era. The examination of how historical influences have shaped current American society, issues of racial and gender equality, immigration policy, and foreign affairs, offers rich perspectives. Thus, American history essay topics cover a deep understanding of the evolution of the nation built on diverse ethnicities and ideologies.

Cool American History Essay Topics

  • Examination of Manifest Destiny’s Influence on Territorial Expansion
  • Colonial Era’s Impact on Modern American Democracy
  • Evaluating the Emancipation Proclamation’s Consequences
  • Prohibition Era: Analysis of Society and Law
  • Understanding the Trail of Tears: Native American Displacement
  • Civil War’s Effects on American Industrialization
  • Abolition Movement’s Roles in Shaping American Values
  • Vietnam War: Implications for Foreign Policy
  • Exploring Women’s Suffrage Movement: A Milestone in Gender Equality
  • Apollo Program’s Influence on Science and Technology
  • Examining the Harlem Renaissance’s Impact on African American Culture
  • McCarthyism’s Consequences on Freedom of Expression
  • Revolutionary War: Analysis of the Birth of a Nation
  • Influence of Immigration on the Cultural Landscape of America
  • Civil Rights Movement’s Impact on Legislation and Society
  • Japanese Internment during World War II: An Examination
  • Investigation of the Cuban Missile Crisis’ Effect on Cold War Tensions
  • Roles of Transcontinental Railroad in Westward Expansion
  • Impacts of the Great Awakening on American Religious Practices
  • Watergate Scandal: A Study in Political Ethics
  • Exploration of the Roaring Twenties’ Societal Shifts
  • Revolutionary Figures: Contributions of the Founding Fathers

American History Essay Topics & Good Ideas

Easy American History Research Topics

  • American Exceptionalism: Origins and Influence on Global Policy
  • Analysis of the Louisiana Purchase’s Impact on Expansion
  • Jazz Age: Implications for American Music and Culture
  • Evaluating the Space Race: National Pride and Technological Advancement
  • Consequences of the Teapot Dome Scandal in the Roaring Twenties
  • Federalist Papers: Shaping American Governance
  • Westward Expansion: Effect on Native American Communities
  • Impacts of the Dred Scott Decision on Slavery Debates
  • Cold War: Ramifications for American Society
  • Influence of Thomas Paine’s ‘Common Sense’ on Revolutionary Sentiment
  • Exploration of American Neutrality in World War I
  • Bay of Pigs Invasion: An Examination of Failed Foreign Policy
  • The Dust Bowl: Environmental Impact and Migration
  • Roles of Television in the Nixon-Kennedy Debates
  • The Stonewall Riots: Catalyst for the LGBTQ+ Rights Movement
  • Populist Movement: Impact on American Politics
  • Influence of the Gold Rush on California’s Development
  • Ratification of the Bill of Rights: Impact on Citizen Liberties
  • Rise of Labor Unions: Influencing Workers’ Rights
  • Civil War Reconstruction: Successes and Failures
  • The Zenger Trial: A Landmark for Freedom of the Press

Interesting US History Topics

  • Exploration of the Battle of Gettysburg’s Significance in the Civil War
  • Implications of the Monroe Doctrine on American Foreign Policy
  • Marbury vs. Madison: Analysis of Judicial Review
  • Unraveling the Causes and Consequences of the Iran-Contra Affair
  • The American Red Scare: Effects on Society and Politics
  • Causes and Implications of the 1929 Wall Street Crash
  • Underground Railroad: Role in Abolitionist Movement
  • Analysis of the Three-Fifths Compromise’s Impact on Representation
  • Significance of the Missouri Compromise in Slavery Debates
  • The Pentagon Papers: A Study in Government Transparency
  • Roles of Susan B. Anthony in the Women’s Suffrage Movement
  • Influence of the Scopes Trial on the Teaching of Evolution
  • Understanding the Impact of the GI Bill on Post-War America
  • Tracing the Development of American Modernism in the 20th Century
  • Federal Indian Policy: An Examination of Treaties and Legislation
  • Impacts of the Homestead Act on Westward Expansion
  • Analysis of the Lewis and Clark Expedition’s Contribution to Scientific Discovery
  • Analysis of the Pentagon Papers’ Effect on Public Trust
  • Exploration of the Boston Tea Party’s Impact on Revolutionary Sentiment
  • Vietnam War Protest Movement: Influence on Public Policy
  • Mexican-American War: Causes and Consequences
  • Repercussions of the Atomic Bomb on Global Politics
  • The Gilded Age: Scrutinizing Wealth and Inequality

US History Topics for High School

  • Impacts of the Gold Rush on California’s Development
  • Significance of the Monroe Doctrine in US Foreign Policy
  • Manifest Destiny and Expansion of the American West
  • Examination of The Great Depression’s Socioeconomic Effects
  • Role of Women in the American Revolution
  • Native American Resistance: Case Study of the Sioux Nation
  • Influence of Jazz Music on the Harlem Renaissance
  • Abolitionism’s Effect on Pre-Civil War Politics
  • Reconstruction Era: Assessing its Success and Failures
  • Impact of Immigration Waves on American Culture and Economy
  • Evolution of US Foreign Policy During the Cold War
  • Transformation of American Society During the Roaring Twenties
  • Examination of The Civil Rights Movement’s Major Milestones
  • Roles of Labor Unions in the Industrial Revolution
  • Influence of The Second Amendment on Gun Control Debates
  • Native American Assimilation Policy: The Carlisle Indian School
  • Cuban Missile Crisis: A Pivotal Moment in Cold War History
  • Women’s Suffrage Movement and the 19th Amendment
  • Exploration of the Gilded Age’s Economic Disparities
  • Significance of the Federalist Papers in Constitutional Interpretation
  • Analysis of the Patriot Act’s Impact on Civil Liberties
  • Effects of the Vietnam War on Domestic Social Movements
  • Roles of New Deal Programs in America’s Economic Recovery

US History Topics for College Students

  • Exploration and Impact of the Louisiana Purchase
  • Evolution of the American Civil Rights Movement
  • Native American Resistance to European Colonization
  • Establishment and Influence of the Federal Reserve System
  • Impacts of Industrialization on American Society
  • Consequences of Prohibition: The 18th and 21st Amendments
  • Influential Innovations During the Second Industrial Revolution
  • Manifest Destiny and Its Sociopolitical Implications
  • African-American Soldiers in the American Civil War
  • Formation and Legacy of the Hudson Bay Company
  • Roles of Religion in the Founding of American Colonies
  • American Policy and the Vietnam War: An Analysis
  • Development of the Transcontinental Railroad
  • Expansion of American Pop Culture During the Cold War
  • Key Legal Cases in the Fight for Desegregation
  • LGBTQ+ Rights: The Stonewall Riots and Beyond
  • Role of the American Media During the Gulf War
  • Technological Advances and the American Space Race
  • Examination of the US Immigration Policies Throughout History
  • Rise of American Suburbia in the Post-WWII Era
  • Development of the American Healthcare System: Legislation and Impact

US History Topics for University

  • Watergate Scandal and Its Influence on American Politics
  • Native American Civil Rights Movement in the 20th Century
  • Cuban Missile Crisis: Cold War Diplomacy and Consequences
  • Influence of the American Labor Movement on Working Conditions
  • Mexican-American War: Causes, Progress, and Consequences
  • Women’s Suffrage: From Seneca Falls to the 19th Amendment
  • Role of American Inventors in the Age of Enlightenment
  • Effects of the US Interstate Highway System on American Society
  • Examination of the US Intervention in Latin America
  • Impacts of the Baby Boomer Generation on American Culture
  • California Gold Rush and its Influence on Westward Expansion
  • Abolition Movement: Influential Figures and Strategies
  • Development and Impact of the US Postal Service
  • Key Economic Policies of the Roosevelt Administration
  • Influence of the Harlem Renaissance on American Literature
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  • Evolution of Gun Control Legislation in the United States
  • Exploration of the Oregon Trail: Migration and Hardship
  • Rise and Fall of the American Temperance Movement
  • Impacts of the GI Bill on Post-War American Society
  • American Imperialism: From the Philippines to Puerto Rico
  • Cultural Significance of the American Beat Generation
  • Causes and Outcomes of the American Housing Bubble in 2008

American History Essay Topics on Revolution Battles and Key Events

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  • African Americans’ Roles in Revolutionary War
  • Impacts of the Battle of Yorktown on American Independence
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  • The Battle of Trenton: Pivotal Point in Revolutionary War
  • Boston Massacre: Instigator of Colonial Dissent
  • French Alliance: A Game-Changer in American Victory
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  • The Battle of Bunker Hill: Boosting Revolutionary Morale
  • Declaration of Independence: Foundation of American Nationhood
  • Lexington and Concord: Sparking the Revolutionary War
  • Native Americans’ Impacts on the American Revolution
  • Treaty of Paris (1783): Securing American Independence
  • Battle of Cowpens: Key Turning Point in Southern Campaign
  • George Washington’s Influence on Revolutionary Leadership
  • Valley Forge: Endurance and Transformation During the Revolution
  • Guilford Courthouse: Decisive Battle in the Southern Campaign
  • Stamp Act Crisis: Prelude to Revolutionary Resistance
  • Militia’s Roles in the Revolutionary War

American Essay History Topics Before 1865

  • Founding Fathers’ Vision for a Democratic Republic
  • Revolutionary War: Catalyst for American Independence
  • Slavery and the Abolitionist Movement
  • Louisiana Purchase: Expanding National Borders
  • Manifest Destiny and Westward Expansion
  • Underground Railroad: Resistance against Slavery
  • Boston Tea Party: Igniting the American Revolution
  • Emancipation Proclamation: Eliminating Slavery in the Confederacy
  • Declaration of Independence: Establishing American Nationhood
  • Constitutional Convention: Framing the US Constitution
  • Dred Scott Case: Impact on African Americans’ Rights
  • Lewis and Clark Expedition: Exploring the Western Frontier
  • Industrialization: Transforming American Society
  • Battle of Yorktown: British Surrender and American Victory
  • Women’s Suffrage Movement: Achieving Voting Rights for Women
  • Mexican-American War: Annexing Texas and Western Territories
  • Great Awakening: Religious Revival in Colonial America
  • Missouri Compromise: Balancing Free and Slave States
  • Marbury vs. Madison: Establishing Judicial Review
  • War of 1812: Forging American National Identity

US Research Paper Topics on Black History

  • Struggles and Triumphs: The Impact of the Underground Railroad on Black History
  • The Legacy of Harriet Tubman: A Trailblazer for Freedom and Equality
  • Examining the Abolitionist Movement: From Slavery to Liberation
  • African American Soldiers in the Civil War: Their Role and Contribution
  • Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott: Igniting Change for Civil Rights
  • Martin Luther King Jr.: A Visionary Leader for Equality
  • The Black Panthers: Revolutionizing Racial Empowerment
  • Celebrating Black Culture and Artistic Expression: The Harlem Renaissance
  • Pioneers of African American Military Aviation: The Tuskegee Airmen
  • Desegregation in Schools: Brown vs. Board of Education’s Impact
  • The March on Washington: A Milestone for Civil Rights Advancement
  • Malcolm X: A Voice for Black Nationalism and Self-Determination
  • Rebuilding After the Civil War: The Era of Reconstruction
  • Breaking Down Legal Barriers: The Civil Rights Act of 1964
  • The Great Migration: Black Americans’ Journey Northward
  • Integration of New Orleans Schools: Ruby Bridges’ Courageous Stand
  • Tragedy and Resilience in Tulsa: The Black Wall Street Massacre
  • The Vital Role of Black Women in the Civil Rights Movement
  • Redefining Black Identity and Empowerment: The Black Power Movement
  • Frederick Douglass: From Escaping Slavery to Becoming a Leader

US History Essay Topics on Civil Rights Movement Topics Beyond the 20th Century

  • Women’s Roles in the Civil Rights Struggle Beyond the 20th Century
  • LGBTQ+ Activism’s Impacts on Contemporary Civil Rights
  • Addressing Police Brutality in the Fight for Civil Rights Today
  • Progress and Challenges of the Voting Rights Act in Post-Civil Rights America
  • Intersections of Race and Immigration in the Struggle for Equal Rights
  • Environmental Justice: Linking It to the Civil Rights Movement Today
  • Reparations Debate: Remedying Historical Injustices for Civil Rights
  • Disability Rights Movement: Achievements and Ongoing Struggles
  • Indigenous Rights Movements: Continuing the Fight for Civil Liberties
  • The Battle for Educational Equality in the Post-Civil Rights Era
  • Affirmative Action: Equalizing Opportunities or Reverse Discrimination?
  • Asian American Civil Rights Activism in the 21st Century
  • Criminal Justice System and Civil Rights: Reforming for Equality
  • Reproductive Rights as Fundamental Civil Liberties: Progress and Challenges
  • Native American Tribal Sovereignty: Preserving Civil Rights in Modern America
  • Nonviolent Resistance: A Powerful Tool in Modern Civil Rights Movements
  • Addressing Racial Disparities: Civil Rights and the Mass Incarceration Crisis
  • Immigrant Rights Movements: Upholding Civil Liberties in America
  • Islamophobia and Civil Rights: Combating Discrimination in the 21st Century
  • LGBTQ+ Rights: Fighting for Equality and Marriage Freedom
  • Balancing Second Amendment Rights and Public Safety: The Gun Control Debate

American History Essay Topics on Cold War and McCarthyism

  • Impacts of the Korean Conflict on Cold War Politics
  • Red Scare and the Hollywood Blacklist
  • Space Race and Significance in Cold War Dynamics
  • Eisenhower’s “New Look” Policy and Nuclear Arms Race
  • Berlin Crisis and Construction of the Wall
  • McCarthyism and Suppression of Civil Liberties
  • Bay of Pigs Invasion: Failed US Intervention in Cuba
  • Vietnam Conflict as Proxy War in Cold Era
  • Marshall Plan and American Economic Aid in Cold War
  • Suez Crisis: Cold War Politics in the Middle East
  • U-2 Spy Plane Incident and Escalating Tensions
  • Hungarian Revolution and Soviet Repression
  • Cultural Impacts of the Beat Generation During the Cold War
  • Arms Control Negotiations: SALT and START Treaties
  • Domino Theory and US Involvement in Southeast Asia
  • CIA’s Roles in Covert Operations During Cold Conflict
  • Influence of Korean Conflict on US Military Strategy
  • Space Exploration: Cold War Competition for Technological Superiority
  • Nuclear Test Ban Treaty: A Step Toward DĂŠtente
  • Brinkmanship Strategy and Cuban Missile Crisis

American History Topics on Civil Rights Movement

  • The Impact of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
  • The Influence of Brown vs. Board of Education on Desegregation
  • The March on Washington: Pursuing Equality
  • Nonviolent Resistance: Catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement
  • The Voting Rights Act: Expanding Ballot Access
  • Freedom Riders: Challenging Segregation in Transportation
  • Sit-In Movement: Breaking the Chains of Racial Segregation
  • Birmingham Campaign: A Turning Point in the Struggle for Civil Rights
  • Formation and Significance of the Black Panther Party
  • Assassination of Malcolm X: Impact on the Civil Rights Movement
  • Selma to Montgomery March: Milestone for Voting Rights
  • Mississippi Freedom Summer: Empowering African American Voters
  • Women’s Contributions to the Civil Rights Movement
  • Black Power Movement: Revolutionizing Activism
  • Civil Rights Act of 1964: Banning Discrimination
  • Integration of Little Rock Central High School: Breaking Barriers
  • Chicago Freedom Movement: Urban Segregation and Activism
  • Medgar Evers’ Assassination: Tragic Loss for the Civil Rights Movement
  • Fair Housing Act of 1968: Combating Housing Discrimination
  • Albany Movement: Lessons From an Unsuccessful Campaign
  • Impacts of the 24th Amendment: Eliminating Poll Taxes

US History Essay Topics on Immigration & Ethnic

  • The Impact of Irish Immigration on American Society
  • Chinese Exclusion Act: Origins and Ramifications
  • Mexican Migration and the Bracero Program
  • Italian Americans: Assimilation and Cultural Heritage
  • The Great Migration: African American Movement to the North
  • Japanese Internment: World War II Consequences
  • Ellis Island: Gateway to the American Dream
  • The Harlem Renaissance: Cultural Expression and Immigrants
  • Irish Americans: Famine, Resilience, and Success
  • Puerto Rican Migration and Nuyorican Culture
  • Angel Island: The West Coast Immigration Center
  • Immigration’s Impacts on Industrialization in the United States
  • Polish Americans: Traditions and Integration
  • The Bracero Program and Agricultural Labor
  • Jewish Immigration and American Zionism
  • Chinese Exclusion Act’s Influence on Immigration Policy
  • Mexican Americans: Struggles and Achievements in the Southwest
  • Immigration and the California Gold Rush
  • German Americans: Contributions and Integration in American Society
  • The Immigration Act of 1924: Restricting National Origins

American Industrial Revolution History Topics

  • Roles of Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin in Industrial Transformation
  • Evolution of Transportation: Railroad’s Influence on American Industry
  • The Rise of Urbanization during the Industrial Era
  • Women’s Participation in the Industrial Workforce: Challenges and Achievements
  • Native American Communities: Industrialization’s Impact
  • Labor Movements and Worker Rights in the Industrial Age
  • Technological Advancements and the Birth of the American Industrial Revolution
  • Development of Factory System: Transition From Artisanal to Mass Production
  • Immigration and Workforce Transformation in the Industrial Revolution
  • Agricultural Practices: Industrialization’s Impact on American Farms
  • American Markets: Industrial Revolution’s Role in Expansion
  • The Growth of Urban Centers: Industrialization’s Effect on Cities
  • Child Labor and the Industrial Revolution in America
  • Changing Roles of Women in American Society during Industrialization
  • Industrialization and American Trade and Commerce
  • Government Regulation and Control in American Industrialization
  • Impacts of the Industrial Revolution on American Education and Literacy
  • Technological Advances in Communication during Industrialization
  • Environmental Consequences of American Industrialization
  • Industrial Revolution’s Influence on American Architecture
  • Effects of Industrialization on American Art and Cultural Trends

Latin American History Essay Topics

  • Conquest and Resistance in Latin America
  • Economic Exploitation in Colonial Latin America
  • Independence Movements in Latin America
  • The Impact of European Immigration on Latin American Societies
  • The Role of Women in Latin American Independence Movements
  • Indigenous Cultures and Their Contributions to Latin American History
  • Latin American Revolutions: Comparing Mexico and South America
  • The Influence of African Slavery in Latin American Societies
  • Dictatorships and Authoritarian Regimes in Latin America
  • The Mexican Revolution: Causes and Consequences
  • Cultural Identity and Nationalism in Latin America
  • The Falklands War: Britain and Argentina in Latin America
  • The Zapatista Movement: Indigenous Rights in Mexico
  • Latin American Literature and the Boom of the 1960s
  • Neoliberalism and Economic Crisis in Latin America
  • Drug Trafficking and Its Impact on Latin American Societies
  • Environmental Movements in Latin America
  • Indigenous Land Rights and Conflicts in Latin America
  • The Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua
  • Chilean Dictatorship: Pinochet’s Rule and Its Legacy

American History Topics on Progressive Era

  • Reforming the American Education System During the Progressive Era
  • Industrialization and Urbanization: Impact on Progressive Era Society
  • Regulating Big Business: Anti-Trust Reforms in the Progressive Era
  • Political Transformations: From Municipal to National Level in the Progressive Era
  • Progressive Era Leaders: Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson
  • Investigating Corruption: Muckrakers and Journalism in the Progressive Era
  • Preserving America’s Natural Resources: The Conservation Movement in the Progressive Era
  • Labor Rights and Social Justice: Workers’ Struggles in the Progressive Era
  • Progressive Era Initiatives: Social Welfare Reforms and Their Impact
  • Temperance and Prohibition: The Progressive Era’s Crusade Against Alcohol
  • Suffrage and Equality: Women’s Fight for Political Rights in the Progressive Era
  • Progressive Era Policies: Immigration Regulations and Nativism
  • Ensuring Consumer Safety: Consumer Protection Reforms in the Progressive Era
  • Science and Social Control: Eugenics and Social Darwinism in the Progressive Era
  • Public Health and Sanitation: Reforms During the Progressive Era
  • African Americans and Civil Rights: Challenges in the Progressive Era
  • Expanding Federal Power: Progressive Era and the Growth of Government Authority
  • Intellectual Movements of the Progressive Era: Pragmatism and Social Gospel
  • The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire: A Turning Point for Labor Reforms
  • Child Labor and Reform Efforts: Progressive Era’s Fight Against Exploitation
  • Diversity and Assimilation: Progressive Era Immigration Policies

American History Essay Topics on Roaring Twenties

  • Economic Prosperity and Consumerism in the Roaring Twenties
  • Impacts of Prohibition on American Society During the Jazz Age
  • Women’s Empowerment Movement in the Roaring Twenties
  • Jazz Age: Cultural Revolution of the 1920s
  • Harlem Renaissance: African-American Art and Culture in the Jazz Age
  • Technological Advancements and Their Influence in the Roaring Twenties
  • Red Scare and Fear of Communism in 1920s America
  • The Great Gatsby: Symbolism and Critique of the Jazz Age
  • Flappers and the Evolution of Gender Roles in the Roaring Twenties
  • Scopes Trial: Clash of Evolution and Creationism in the 1920s
  • Mass Media and Popular Culture in the Roaring Twenties
  • Wall Street Crash of 1929: The End of an Era
  • Political and Social Movements in the Jazz Age
  • Prohibition Enforcement: Bootlegging and Hidden Bars in the 1920s
  • Fashion Transformations in the Roaring Twenties
  • Impact of Radio and Movies on American Culture in the Roaring Twenties
  • Women’s Suffrage Movement and the 19th Amendment in the 1920s
  • Race Relations and the KKK in the Roaring Twenties
  • Art Deco: Architectural and Design Trends of the Jazz Age
  • Automobile Industry’s Influence on American Society in the 1920s

American Reconstruction History Essay Topics

  • The Evolution of Freedmen’s Rights in American Reconstruction
  • Political Reforms and Transformation in Post-Civil War America
  • Economic Shifts and Development During the Reconstruction Era
  • The Influence of the Thirteenth Amendment on American Society
  • Reconstruction Policies and Their Impact on Southern States
  • Women’s Suffrage Movement: A Catalyst in Reconstruction
  • African American Political Leadership in the Reconstruction Era
  • The Struggle for Civil Rights in the Reconstruction Period
  • The Establishment and Impact of the Freedmen’s Bureau
  • African Americans’ Changing Roles in Post-Civil War America
  • The Reconstruction Amendments: Expanding the Notions of Citizenship
  • Education Reforms: Empowering the Disenfranchised During Reconstruction
  • The Ku Klux Klan’s Opposition to Reconstruction
  • The Reconstruction Act of 1867: Restructuring the South
  • The Debate on Land Redistribution in the Reconstruction Era
  • Reconstruction’s Enduring Influence on American Identity
  • The Compromise of 1877: An End to Reconstruction
  • Radical Republicans and Their Influence on the Reconstruction Era
  • Shifting Political Dynamics: Southern Power During Reconstruction
  • The Legacy of Reconstruction: Shaping American History
  • The Supreme Court’s Role in Shaping Reconstruction Policies

LGBTQ+ American History Research Paper Topics

  • Historical Milestones of LGBTQ+ Rights in America
  • The Stonewall Riots: Catalyst for LGBTQ+ Activism
  • Impacts of Harvey Milk on American LGBTQ+ Politics
  • Transgender Rights Movement in the United States
  • The AIDS Crisis and Its Effects on the LGBTQ+ Community
  • Intersectionality: Race and Activism in LGBTQ+ History
  • Lesbian Feminism in America: Past and Present
  • Homophobia and Its Roots in American Society
  • Evolution of LGBTQ+ Representation in Media and Entertainment
  • LGBTQ+ Veterans: Advocacy on the Battlefield
  • Significance of LGBTQ+ Landmarks in American History
  • Religious Perspectives on LGBTQ+ Rights in America
  • LGBTQ+ Activism in the Civil Rights Movement
  • Impacts of Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)
  • Challenges Faced by LGBTQ+ Youth in American Society
  • LGBTQ+ Resistance and Resilience in Conservative States
  • Role of LGBTQ+ Activism in Shaping Employment Discrimination Laws
  • Pioneering Transgender Individuals in American History
  • Queer Literature’s Contribution to LGBTQ+ Identity
  • Roles of LGBTQ+ Community Centers in Promoting Equality

Native American History Essay Topics

  • Native American Resistance During Early Colonial Encounters
  • Impacts of European Diseases on Indigenous Populations
  • Tribal Governance Structures and Political Systems of Native Nations
  • Contributions of Native Americans to the American Revolution
  • Forced Removal of Indigenous Tribes: The Trail of Tears
  • Significance of Native American Diplomacy in the 19th Century
  • Assimilation Policies and the Dawes Act: Effects on Indigenous Communities
  • Native American Women in History: Leaders, Activists, and Guardians
  • The Wounded Knee Massacre: Causes and Consequences
  • Indigenous Art, Literature, and Music: Cultural Contributions
  • Native American Tribes’ Role in the Civil War
  • The Indian Reorganization Act: Impact on Tribal Sovereignty
  • Land Rights and Legal Challenges Faced by Indigenous Peoples
  • Native American Religion and Spiritual Practices: Continuity and Adaptation
  • Native American Code Talkers in World Wars I and II
  • Boarding Schools and Cultural Suppression: Indigenous Experiences
  • The American Indian Movement (AIM): Impact on Indigenous Activism
  • Indigenous Trade Networks and Economic Systems
  • Reservation Policies and Tribal Self-Governance Among Indigenous Peoples
  • Hunting, Gathering, and Agricultural Practices of Native Nations
  • Indigenous Languages: Preservation and Revitalization Efforts

American History Research Paper Topics About World War I & II

  • The Impact of Propaganda on American Society During World War I
  • Women’s Roles in the American Homefront During World War II
  • The Aftermath of World War I: Treaty of Versailles and Its Consequences
  • America’s Race to Build the Atomic Bomb: The Manhattan Project
  • African Americans’ Contribution to World War II
  • The Great Depression’s Influence on American Entry Into World War II
  • America’s Aid to Allied Forces: The Lend-Lease Act During World War II
  • Racial Tensions in America During World War II: The Zoot Suit Riots
  • The GI Bill: Impact on Post-World War II America
  • America’s Shift in Foreign Policy After World War I: The Interwar Period
  • The Battle of Midway: A Decisive Moment in the Pacific Theater of World War II
  • Cold War Paranoia in America: The Red Scare and McCarthyism
  • Japanese Americans’ Internment During World War II
  • The Marshall Plan: American Aid for Post-World War II European Reconstruction
  • Unsung Heroes of World War II: The Navajo Code Talkers
  • Veterans’ Struggles During the Great Depression: The Bonus Army March
  • American Nurses’ Role in World War I and II
  • Tragedy in the Pacific Theater of World War II: The Bataan Death March
  • Mexican Laborers in the American War Effort: The Bracero Program
  • America’s Involvement in a Cold War Proxy Conflict: The Korean War

American History Essay Topics About Founding Fathers and the Constitution

  • The Revolutionary Vision: Exploring the Ideals of America’s Founding Fathers
  • Jefferson’s Influence on American Democracy
  • Hamilton’s Economic Policies and Their Impact on the Constitution
  • James Madison: Shaping the Foundation of the Constitution
  • The Delicate Balance: Compromises at the Constitutional Convention
  • Analyzing the Federalist Papers: Arguments for Ratifying the Constitution
  • Safeguarding Individual Liberties: The Significance of the Bill of Rights
  • John Adams: Statesman and Advocate for Independence
  • Thomas Paine’s Impact: Common Sense and Revolutionary Ideas
  • Benjamin Franklin: Influencing American Diplomacy
  • Abigail Adams: Trailblazing Woman and Her Role in Nation-Building
  • Opposition to the Constitution: Examining the Anti-Federalist Movement
  • Alexander Hamilton’s Economic Policies: A Federalist Approach
  • Shaping American Jurisprudence: The Contributions of John Jay
  • The Articles of Confederation: Weaknesses and the Call for a New Constitution
  • Crafting American Government: The Constitutional Convention
  • Slavery and the Constitution: Debate Over the Three-Fifths Compromise
  • Samuel Adams: Revolutionary Catalyst and Political Figure
  • Patrick Henry’s Inspiring Speeches: Fanning the Flames of Independence
  • The Northwest Ordinance: Guiding Principles for Westward Expansion
  • Challenging Free Speech: The Alien and Sedition Acts

American History Topics About Space Race and NASA’s Contributions

  • NASA’s Roles in the Space Race: A Historical Perspective
  • The Mercury Seven: Trailblazers of American Space Exploration
  • Apollo 11: A Monumental Leap for Mankind
  • The Impact of Sputnik on US Space Programs
  • Lunar Exploration: NASA’s Quest to Unravel the Moon’s Mysteries
  • Revolutionizing Space Travel: The Legacy of the Space Shuttle Program
  • Unsung Heroes: The Hidden Figures of NASA’s Early Years
  • The Cold War Context and the Space Race
  • Advancements in Weather Forecasting and Earth Observation by NASA
  • Beyond Our Solar System: NASA’s Voyager and Pioneer Missions
  • Skylab: America’s First Orbital Space Station
  • Robotic Pioneers: NASA’s Missions to Explore the Solar System
  • Lessons Learned From the Challenger Disaster for Space Exploration
  • Expanding Horizons: The Hubble Space Telescope’s Contributions
  • International Collaborations in Space Exploration: NASA’s Global Impact
  • Revealing Mars’ Secrets: NASA’s Robotic Rovers
  • Trailblazing With the X-15 Program: Advancing Spaceplane Technology
  • Enabling Satellite Communications: NASA’s Contributions
  • Apollo-Soyuz Test Project: A Symbol of US-Soviet Space Cooperation
  • The Space Shuttle Challenger Tragedy: Aftermath and Reforms

US Civil War Research Paper Topics

  • Causes and Consequences of the Battle of Gettysburg
  • Reconstruction Policies and Their Impact on Post-Civil War America
  • Women’s Roles in the Civil War: From Nurses to Spies
  • Abraham Lincoln’s Leadership and the Emancipation Proclamation
  • The Underground Railroad: Freedom Heroes and Heroines
  • Battle of Antietam: Decisive Turning Point
  • African American Soldiers in the Union Army
  • Sherman’s March to the Sea: Total Warfare Strategy
  • The Battle of Bull Run: A Shocking Wake-Up Call
  • Significance of the Vicksburg Campaign in the Civil War
  • Election of 1860 and the Secession Crisis
  • Civil War Photography’s Impact on Public Perception
  • Formation and Ideals of the Confederate States of America
  • Fort Sumter: Prelude to War
  • Clara Barton and the Red Cross: Humanitarian Aid during the Civil War
  • Draft Riots of 1863: Social Unrest in New York City
  • Robert E. Lee’s Military Strategies and Leadership
  • Emancipation Proclamation: Freedom for the Enslaved
  • Battle of Shiloh: Bloodiest Conflict in the Western Theater
  • Jefferson Davis and the Confederate Government’s Formation

American History Research Paper Topics on Vietnam War

  • The Nixon Doctrine: America’s Foreign Policy Approach During the Vietnam War
  • Women’s Role and Contributions in the Vietnam War Effort
  • The My Lai Tragedy: Atrocity and Its Consequences in the Vietnam Conflict
  • Draft Resistance Movements: Opposition to the Vietnam War
  • Negotiating Peace: The Paris Accords and the End of the Vietnam Conflict
  • The Ho Chi Minh Trail: North Vietnam’s Strategic Supply Route
  • Agent Orange: Environmental and Health Impacts of Chemical Warfare
  • The Fall of Saigon: The Final Chapter of the Vietnam War
  • The Gulf of Tonkin Incident: Escalation and Justification of the Vietnam Conflict
  • Battle of Khe Sanh: Symbolism and Significance in the Vietnam War
  • Anti-War Movement: Activism and Protests Against the Vietnam Conflict
  • The Phoenix Program: Counterinsurgency Tactics in the Vietnam War
  • Operation Rolling Thunder: Aerial Bombing Campaign During the Vietnam Conflict
  • Hamburger Hill: Intense Combat and Sacrifice in the Vietnam War
  • Kent State Shootings: Tragedy and Student Demonstrations in the Vietnam War
  • The Siege of Khe Sanh: A Crucial Moment in the Vietnam Conflict
  • Congressional Response: The War Powers Act and Its Impact on the Vietnam War
  • African American Soldiers: Contributions and Challenges in the Vietnam War
  • Strategic Hamlet Program: Counterinsurgency Strategy in the Vietnam Conflict
  • Laotian Civil War: Regional Dynamics and Their Influence on the Vietnam War

American History Essay Topics on Women’s Suffrage and Feminist Movement

  • The Evolution of Women’s Suffrage in American History
  • Key Leaders in the American Feminist Movement
  • Seneca Falls Convention: Catalyst for Change
  • Abolitionism’s Influence on Women’s Suffrage
  • Progressive Era: Intersection With Women’s Rights
  • Susan B. Anthony’s Impact on the Suffrage Movement
  • National American Woman Suffrage Association: Formation and Impact
  • Alice Paul and the National Women’s Party’s Influence
  • Women’s Suffrage and World War I: Shifting Perspectives
  • Battle for the 19th Amendment: Triumphs and Challenges
  • Suffragettes’ Strategies: Methods and Successes
  • African American Women’s Contributions to Suffrage Movement
  • Native American Women’s Role in the Fight for Suffrage
  • Women’s Suffrage in the Western States: Trailblazers of Progress
  • Feminist Movement and World War II’s Impact
  • Second Wave Feminism: Objectives and Accomplishments
  • Feminist Literature: Catalyst for Social Change
  • Betty Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique” and Its Influence
  • Women’s Liberation Movement: Birth of NOW
  • Roe vs. Wade: Women’s Reproductive Rights Examined
  • Title IX: Transforming Women’s Sports and Education

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594 satire essay topics & good ideas, 547 analytical essay topics & good ideas.

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Black History

TOPSHOT-BIO-MARTIN LUTHER KING-MARCH ON WASHINGTONTOPSHOT - The civil rights leader Martin Luther King (C) waves to supporters 28 August 1963 on the Mall in Washington DC (Washington Monument in background) during the "March on Washington". - King said the march was "the greatest demonstration of freedom in the history of the United States." Martin Luther King was assassinated on 04 April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. James Earl Ray confessed to shooting King and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. King's killing sent shock waves through American society at the time, and is still regarded as a landmark event in recent US history. AFP PHOTO (Photo by AFP) (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)

Civil Rights Movement Timeline

The civil rights movement was an organized effort by black Americans to end racial discrimination and gain equal rights under the law. It began in the late 1940s and ended in the late 1960s.

Rosa Parks sitting in the front of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, after the Supreme Court ruled segregation illegal on the city bus system on December 21st, 1956. (Credit: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)

Rosa Parks (1913—2005) helped initiate the civil rights movement in the United States when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus in 1955. Her actions inspired the leaders of the local Black community to organize the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

essay on american history

Black History Month

February is dedicated as Black History Month, honoring the triumphs and struggles of African Americans throughout U.S. history.

essay on american history

Black History Milestones: Timeline

Black history in the United States is a rich and varied chronicle of slavery and liberty, oppression and progress, segregation and achievement.

essay on american history

The Black Explorer Who May Have Reached the North Pole First

In 1909 African American Matthew Henson trekked with explorer Robert Peary, reaching what they claimed was the North Pole. Who got there first?

A photo of Madam C.J. Walker, the first woman to become a self-made millionaire in the United States, driving a car, circa 1911. From the New York Public Library.

How Madam C.J. Walker Became a Self-Made Millionaire

Despite Jim Crow oppression, Walker founded her own haircare company that helped thousands of African American women gain financial independence.

essay on american history

8 Black Inventors Who Made Daily Life Easier

Black innovators changed the way we live through their many innovations, from the traffic light to the ironing board.

The Harlem Renaissance

Harlem Renaissance: Photos From the African American Cultural Explosion

From jazz and blues to poetry and prose to dance and theater, the Harlem Renaissance of the early 20th century was electric with creative expression by African American artists.

essay on american history

Coretta Scott King

After her husband became pastor, Coretta Scott King joined the choir at the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church. Hear two of her friends and members of the congregation remember Mrs. King’s legacy and her voice.

essay on american history

When Segregationists Bombed Martin Luther King Jr.’s House

On January 30, 1956, Martin Luther King Jr.’s house was bombed by segregationists in retaliation for the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

essay on american history

Brown v. Board of Education

In 1954, the Supreme Court unanimously strikes down segregation in public schools, sparking the Civil Rights movement.

essay on american history

How the Montgomery Bus Boycott Accelerated the Civil Rights Movement

For 382 days, almost the entire African-American population of Montgomery, Alabama, including leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, refused to ride on segregated buses, a turning point in the American civil rights movement.

This Day in History

essay on american history

First HBCU, Lincoln University, chartered

John singleton, 24, becomes first black director nominated for an oscar, frederick douglass is born, henry lewis named first black conductor of a major u.s. orchestra, joseph searles iii becomes first black member of the new york stock exchange, harlem hellfighter henry johnson awarded a posthumous medal of honor.

American history essay

The period of American history from the Declaration of Independence to the War of 1812 was one of the most difficult and incredibly eventful times for the nation. Author Joseph Wheelan has masterfully told the story of one fascinating situation, the 1801—1805 Barbary War in Jefferson’s War. There is plenty of action with graphic details of the environment and battles as well as with the personal histories and relationships of the major figures. He also describes the many similarities and differences between this period and current events.

Perhaps most importantly, he provides the details of the development of what would later be called the “gunboat diplomacy” of American foreign policy. Wheelan depictions colorfully and accurately bring the 1801-1805 Barbary War to life. The action takes place primarily in the Mediterranean Sea and the coastal towns in Egypt, Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli (modern-day Algeria, Tunisia and Libya). The description of Islam, landscapes, produce, peoples and customs conveys how alien and exotic North Africa was to the Americans.

His account of geography witnessed during a desert campaign march to the interior of pasha’s (rulers) homes is detailed and colorful. Battle scenes are frequent and violent. Descriptions of the ships, cannons, and hand weapons are equally detailed, as well as the gruesome carnage they cause. The book mainly reports the action during Thomas Jefferson’s presidency and his reaction to it. Wheelan explains the national and world politics and leaders and how this influenced Jefferson’s actions. He also provides thorough biographical information on the various American envoys and diplomats as well as numerous naval officers.

The personalities, prejudices, and egos of many, as well as their alliances and rivalries are significant factors in the complex situations of the war, just as they are today. The intrigue, deceptions and behind-the-scenes action are just one of the similarities of that era to modern-day politics and world events. America then was first confronted by Islamic leaders and “jihad” and well as terror inflicted on non-combatants, with the obvious parallel to the current war on terrorism. Then as is today, alliances were sought between the numerous nations that were alternately attacked and extorted by the Barbary Nations.

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Unlike today, plague, disease, food shortages and weather had a huge impact on activities. Perhaps the most significant difference is today’s instant communications as opposed to the months it would take a message to travel between America and personnel on the scene. The Barbary Coast system of payments, ransoms, and bribes would today be called a “protection racket”. Nations gave in to the demands as it was cheaper than going to war. However, the American attitude, and eventually naval power, caused the pashas to decrease their demands, and ultimately cease their actions.

At the time it was seen as the national symbol, showing an olive branch in one hand with weapons in the other. In later years other names would be used, including “showing the flag”, “speak softly but carry a big stick” and “peace through superior firepower”. This first showing of gunboat diplomacy not only quelled the Barbary War, but placed all nations on notice that the reach of American naval power would forever factor into its foreign policies.

Works Cited

Wheelan, Joseph. Jefferson’s War. New York: Carroll and Graf, 2003.

Home — Essay Samples — History — History of the United States — African American History

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The Meaning of Being Black

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Comparison of The Life of Slaves and Indentured Servants

Violence in music and media and its effects on children, rhetorical analysis of kristof’s article "food for the soul", the impact of music and dance on saving african slaves culture, the comparison of "poem about my rights" by june jordan and "the day lady died" by frank o'hara, food to feed one’s soul, influence of 'red summer' on the naacp, the importance of slave songs in african american history, diversity and social complexity of africans before the atlantic slave trade, blacks in american history: racism and american dream, northern states abolished slavery, critical analysis of plessy vs ferguson case, dred scott decision: the role of supreme court and political parties, why is black history month important: my views, tuskegee airmen and discrimination of african americans during world war ii, black history month: the importance of knowing african american history, review of the film tuskegee airmen, the underground railroads for african-american slaves, new jazz and the civil rights movement, african americans, outdoor recreation, and the 1919 chicago race riot .

History of African Americans began when "twenty and odd" Africans were landed in the English colony of Virginia in 1619. The majority of African Americans are the descendants of Africans who were forced into slavery. In 1790 Black people numbered almost 760,000. During that time, they were considered an inferior race with heathen culture.

The blacks were documented into slavery in Virginia in 1661 and in all the English colonies by 1750. They were forced to work in the farmlands of the New World. They were sold as merchandise by European traders on slave ships. During the period of the 17th and 18th centuries, they were forced to work as slaves on tobacco, rice, and indigo plantations. In 1807 Thomas Jefferson signed legislation that officially ended the African trade of enslaved peoples. However, this act did not presage the end of slavery.

Abolitionists in the United States in the 1840-1860 period developed large propaganda campaigns against slavery. At the beginning of 1861, a movement, known as the Civil War, was launched in an attempt to liberate all the country's slaves. In September 1862 Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, stating that all slaves were to be free. After the Civil War, nearly four million slaves were freed.

The Civil Rights Act of 1866 made Black people full U.S. citizens. Ratification of the 15th amendment in 1870 extended the right to vote to Black males. However, in the post-Reconstruction years, African Americans struggled to find a job, so many of them decided to migrate westward.

In 1900, nearly 8 million African Americans still lived in the South, however, due to economic depression, more African Americans moved Northwards and were then embroiled in WWI. Between 1910 and 1920 an estimated 500,000 African Americans left the South. During the war thousands of black officers were commissioned and many served abroad in labour battalions and service regiments.

The Great Depression of the 1930s worsened the already bleak economic situation of African Americans. During that period, a large number of African Americans lost their jobs amidst inherent discrimination. African Americans were aided with low cost public housing, education and more jobs.

In World War II as in World War I, there was a mass migration of Blacks from the South. Abbout 1.5 million African Americans left the South during the 1940s. During the war, an African American soldiers were in service units, and combat troops remained segregated.

The Civil Rights Movement was the persistent and deliberate step of African Americans in the 1940s and 1950s. The culmination of the Civil Rights Movement was in 1963, which aided in securing the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned discrimination in voting, public accommodations, and employment.

The post-civil rights era is notable for the New Great Migration, in which millions of African Americans have returned to the South, often to pursue increased economic opportunities in now-desegregated southern cities. Politically and economically, Black people have made substantial strides in the post-civil rights era. The dramatic political breakthrough came in the 2008 election, with the election of Barack Obama.

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The Black History That Moves Us: A Resource List for Educators

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Beyond February: Teaching Black History Any Day, Every Day, and All Year Long, K–3 (book)

This guide by Dawnavyn James (who also contributed to this resource list) supports elementary educators in their Black history instruction. Because Black history is often taught during February, this book dives into ways that Black history can be taught throughout the school year.

The book includes examples from the classroom and additional resources for educators to use in their classrooms. There are templates for educators, frequently asked questions about elementary Black history instruction, and strategies for reading Black-history-centered picture books.

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Beyond February gives examples of what Black history can look like in social studies, literacy, math, and science instruction and weaves in personal stories of the author’s experience teaching Black history in elementary classrooms.

Black Lives Matter at School, edited by Denisha Jones & Jesse Hagopian (book)

This text chronicles National Black Lives Matter at School , a movement that began in Seattle in 2016, through interviews, essays, poems, lessons, and depictions of campaigns.

The book includes writings from leading voices in anti-racist education like Bettina Love and Wayne Au but also highlights the work of teachers, community and union activists, and, most importantly, the students who have built this national movement through a variety of activities, events, and its annual week of action in February. (This year, the week of action will occur Feb. 5-9.)

Part activist guide, part autobiographical account, it reveals the struggles and challenges to institutional racism in schools by focusing on the movement’s four key demands: 1) ending zero-tolerance discipline practices, 2) mandating Black history and ethnic-studies classes, 3) hiring more Black teachers, and 4) funding counselors, not police officers, for schools.

“ Coded Bias ” (documentary)

This Netflix documentary was created by MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini to expose the racial bias, sexism, and flaws of artificial intelligence, facial-recognition technology, and software algorithms. This documentary encourages educators to more closely analyze the role of technology, specifically generative artificial intelligence, and to advocate ethical and inclusive technology.

Included are stories of algorithmic discrimination related to policing, surveillance, hiring practices, technology, and housing. Each story gives viewers an in-depth exploration of how data and algorithms can reinforce existing inequalities and harm marginalized communities.

Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness by Simone Browne (book)

This book examines the intersection of surveillance and race. Browne delves into the history of surveillance technologies and practices, highlighting how Black bodies have been surveilled, controlled, and commodified throughout history, from the era of slavery to modern surveillance technologies.

Dark Matters informs us of the history, strategy, planning, and technologies behind the creation of the slave ship. When it comes to teaching slavery in the United States, we can no longer shy away from the brutal truth of transporting, branding, owning, selling, and tracking Black bodies across land and sea.

“ High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America ” (docuseries)

This Netflix docuseries centers not just on the richness of African American cuisine but also on the richness of Black history. Food journalist Stephen Satterfield and culinary historian Jessica B. Harris trace the origins of different dishes and highlight the history of Black people, their culture, and a variety of cooking techniques and recipes.

“High on the Hog” can be used by educators and families alike to educate children and themselves about the people and places that cultivate the culture and meals that nourish the souls of Black people.

Through the two seasons of this docuseries, viewers get to hear stories of resistance and agency, meet historical and modern chefs, and learn innovative recipes.

Histematics (video)

Histematics, a concept created by former Philadelphia public school teacher Akil Parker, is a combination of history and mathematics. Parker offers a unique approach when encouraging pre- and in-service teachers to combine subjects, specifically history and mathematics. Through the concept of Histematics, he has been able to attract and engage the attention of many as his theory of mathematics education continues to evolve.

Last Seen: Finding Family After Slavery (online archive)

After the Civil War, finding family members was a priority for formerly enslaved people. Launched in 2017 as a collaboration between Villanova University’s graduate history program and Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, Last Seen is an extensive collection of primary-source ads from across the country placed by family members searching to reconnect with loved ones. The ads reveal the perseverance, hope, and problem-solving of the Black community during and after Reconstruction.

The ads can be searched by location, specific term, and name, and a variety of filters can be used to narrow down results. An interactive global map indicates the locations where ads were placed or appeared. Last Seen also includes several lesson plans for elementary through high school on how to use the primary sources to learn about the domestic slave trade, the lives of the enslaved, resistance, and family separation.

Teaching White Supremacy by Donald Yacovone (book)

This 2022 book chronicles the deliberate creation of a white supremacist narrative that has been pervasive in our country’s educational system, especially in K-12 textbooks and curriculum . Yacovone explores how ideologies of white supremacy have deep roots in education starting with the nation’s inception and continuing to the present day and have become a major part of our collective national identity.

For teachers, this resource provides an argument to teach diverse perspectives and to critique what (and most importantly who) is considered an American. In these divisive times, this book provides important historical context to current attacks on teachers, books, and school boards teaching about race, racism, and white supremacy in the classroom.

Suggested Instagram Pages:

  • @iamblacklit : a Black, woman-owned bookstore featuring all-Black authors
  • @HBCUprepschool : a Black-owned shop with books and other instructional and learning materials created for children by founder Claudia Walker
  • @justice4blackgirls : a Black, women-owned platform to amplify voices of Black girls and women

Explore the Collection

Read more from historians and educators celebrating the history and progression of Black history education. In this special Opinion collection, explore the history of the discipline and find resources for teachers today.

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Smithsonian

New Collections: Sonya Clark, Shelia Pepe, and Margaret Roach Wheeler Oral Histories

Sonya Taylor wears a colorful tank top, glasses, gold earrings with a blue stone, gold rings on each hand, and a blue hair wrap with a white dotted pattern. She sits in front of two closets with brown wooden doors with a tall stack of books between them, and a door next to the closets with a blue fabric square hanging on the wall. (detail)

This entry is part of an ongoing series highlighting new collections. The Archives of American Art collects primary source materials—original letters, writings, preliminary sketches, scrapbooks, photographs, financial records, and the like—that have significant research value for the study of art in the United States. The following essay was originally published in the Fall 2023 issue (vol. 62, no. 2) of the Archives of American Art Journal. More information about the journal can be found at  https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/aaa/current .

Sonya Taylor wears a colorful tank top, glasses, gold earrings with a blue stone, gold rings on each hand, and a blue hair wrap with a white dotted pattern. She sits in front of two closets with brown wooden doors with a tall stack of books between them, and a door next to the closets with a blue fabric square hanging on the wall.

Three new oral histories conducted remotely with trailblazers in the textile arts have entered the Archives, bolstering the stories of craft available to researchers. These interviews build on the robust craft foundation fortified by the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, comprised of 235 oral histories conducted between 2000 and 2012. In this new set of interviews, Sonya Clark grounds her fiber work in the human body as a historical and generative site, Sheila Pepe contextualizes craft within a sociopolitical landscape of upheaval, and Margaret Roach Wheeler unpacks weaving as a means to retain and extend Native American culture.

Speaking from her home in Amherst, Massachusetts, Clark (b. 1967) outlines the material, political, and personal impulses that limn her weaving. Through meaningful elements such as hair and traditional methods drawn from her African and Caribbean heritage, Clark resists conventional divisions between fine arts and craft, highlighting the racialized weight of such terms. “What is happening is that there’s this rarefication of what art is and who defines it. Most of that definition happened in Europe around the guild system, and so I’m pushing back at that all the time,” the artist explains. Her rejection of the craft-fine arts divide is rooted in her ethics, as she told interviewer Sam Adams, Ellen Johnson ’33 Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Allen Memorial Art Museum. As Clark puts it, “Craft to me . . . is a kind of essential human activity. When it’s denied, it’s . . . no different than denying someone’s script or someone’s language. . . .  I think it’s my responsibility to push what the definition of craft is.”

Interviewed in her Brooklyn home by John Corso-Esquivel, associate professor of art history at Davidson College, Pepe (b. 1959) untangles her long affairs with radical politics and radical craft. From the ritualization of gender that she witnessed during her childhood in the Catholic church to the efflorescence of lesbian communities from New England to Brooklyn, Pepe describes the rich diversity of families she has found and forged. Drawn to the subversive possibilities of ostensibly domestic craft, Pepe draws parallels between the labor of weaving and that of postwar painting in her installations, which are geared toward social gatherings and communal conversations. “When you see abstraction,” she told Corso-Esquivel, “you’re reading the maker’s body and trying to—as a maker, I’m trying to give you gestures that you can do too. You can crochet too. You can reach up to the sky too. You can crawl under this thing too. I want the playfulness, I want the viewer to get carried away in the movement as if they are doing it.”

Margaret Roach Wheeler sits in front of shelves with books and small framed works of art wearing glasses and a red, patterned shirt with a collar over a black tee shirt. She wears bangs and her hair is just below chin length. To her right is a room with shelves and a stool.

From her home in Sulphur, Oklahoma, Wheeler (b. 1943; Chickasaw/Choctaw) recounts her life’s efforts to research, recuperate, and advance Native weaving traditions. In conversation with interdisciplinary scholar, writer, and curator Laura Marshall Clark (Muscogee Creek), Wheeler details the extensive archival and visual detective work that informs her understanding and replication of indigenous techniques that have been passed down through generations. In 2000, Wheeler held a fellowship at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian , where she conducted research into textiles produced by the Mississippi Mound Builders, predecessors of the Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes. She reflects in the interview, “I could find out very little, but it was bast fiber, which means a plant fiber. We use the inner bark of mulberries, and the Mound Builders were the ancestors of the Chickasaw. That’s why I was researching them. They used—in the fibers themselves, there would be bird feathers—the fluff from the bird feathers. There were different kinds of plants that they would spin, and all natural products, of course. Rabbit fur is found in it, so it was a mixture of several things.” The results of that inquiry have been pivotal for Wheeler’s career as an artist, steward, and educator, especially as she reconstructs and reimagines tribal dress and decoration for new generations of Native Americans.

All three voices recorded by the Archives reveal craft as a mode to record and advance culture. These weavers interrogate putative conceptions of fiber art and its roles in heritage and communal belonging, nuancing the ways humans tell history by thread and by tale. Their interviews join a growing chorus at the Archives that illuminates the intricacy of craft as an expressive, essential art.

Ben Gillespie is the oral historian at the Archives of American Art.

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Trilling Redux

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Geraldine Murphy, Trilling Redux, American Literary History , Volume 36, Issue 1, Summer 2024, Pages 156–160, https://doi.org/10.1093/alh/ajad235

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Ambitious and having to make his way professionally (he had just become an assistant professor in 1939), Trilling saw American literature as a vehicle of upward mobility for himself, just as it was for Vincent.

I’d like to thank John Fagg and Gordon Hutner for giving me the opportunity to revisit Lionel Trilling’s unfinished novel in light of Michael Kalisch’s essay, “Trilling Unfinished.” The focus of my introduction to The Journey Abandoned (2008) was granular, befitting the discovery of an unknown text by a famous author, but it was also framed by the historical reappraisal of consensus liberalism by historians and literary critics of the 1980s and 1990s. While I can’t deny that both the persona and prose of Trilling’s essays still beguile the discerning reader, having analyzed Trilling’s writing at a critical moment alive to the conservative implications of his anti-Stalinist liberalism, I can’t suppress the J’accuse! impulse. It dates me, I know. The past 20 years have witnessed reconsiderations of both Trilling and liberalism, reflecting the political and cultural moment in which we now find ourselves; nevertheless, in this short commentary, I’d like to return to “the dark and bloody crossroads where literature and politics meet” ( Liberal Imagination 10) as Trilling defined them.

One point that has not been sufficiently noted in the many explorations of Trilling’s political posture in the 1940s—the period in which much of The Journey Abandoned was written—is how firmly it was grounded in American literature. As Trilling admitted in the 1964 preface to his short study of E. M. Forster, “I had a quarrel with American literature as at that time it was established, and against what seemed to me its dullness and its pious social simplicities I enlisted Mr. Forster’s vivacity, complexity and irony” (ix). This formulation is about as close as Trilling comes to defining the binaries of Stalinism/liberalism and realism/modernism. As Morris Dickstein points out, Trilling’s anti-Stalinism is capacious enough to include any scheme of social improvement and conflates Popular Frontism with “middlebrow boosterism, cultural nationalism, and a pragmatic faith in technology and democracy” (71). In the unfinished novel, the cultural center called Meadowfield is “not only sound but democratic ” ( Journey Abandoned 41), according to Harold Outram, the foundation director who supports it, but to Trilling, that is not necessarily a virtue. Meadowfield’s popularity threatens to sideline the local university from which his protagonist, Vincent Hammell, has graduated, as well as Vincent himself, who teaches a creative writing class to ladies who lunch. At the mercy of their femininity, middlebrow tastes, commercial aspirations, and class stability, Vincent knows he’ll be fired by the end of the term, but, thanks to his new position as Buxton’s official biographer, he’s moving on to better things. Like Theodore Dreiser and V. L. Parrington in “Reality in America” (the lead essay in The Liberal Imagination ), Meadowfield is an exaggeration of a so-called Stalinist cultural hegemony that no longer prevails.

Ambitious and having to make his way professionally (he had just become an assistant professor in 1939), Trilling saw American literature as a vehicle of upward mobility for himself, just as it was for Vincent. As Outram tells the young man, “The American subject—it’s in the cards” ( Journey Abandoned 55). Half of the essays collected in The Liberal Imagination are devoted to American writers, and Trilling was slated to write a study of Mark Twain for the American Men of Letters series; (he had already written an introduction to a 1948 edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ). Characteristically, however, his relationship to American letters is complicated and ambivalent. He was impatient with the provincial modernism of Sherwood Anderson, a writer important to his formative years, and, in the inaugural issue of American Quarterly , he pursued the theme of the inferiority of US modernism. Where James Joyce, Marcel Proust, William Butler Yeats, and Franz Kafka have produced an “active” literature, the work of John Dos Passos, Eugene O’Neill, Thomas Wolfe, and others is essentially “passive” (“Contemporary American Literature” 201). The field “is not so much a subject as an object of study” (202). The exceptional American writers, on the other hand, like Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgar Allan Poe, “contain[] both the yes and the no of their culture” ( Liberal Imagination 9). Like Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner, they reflect “the conflict between new exigencies and old pieties” (“Contemporary American Literature” 205) and exemplify, like Henry James, the equipoise of “moral realism” ( Liberal Imagination 88). In other words, they contain the dialectic of affirmation and resistance within themselves, although it is clear from Trilling’s oeuvre that the ability to entertain opposing ideas is not limited to American writers but is a general index to literary truth and value.

Trilling’s early career coincides with the cultural consolidations of pax Americana, and the canonization of the modern writers Trilling and his generation “discovered” in their youth was central to that history, as Kalisch acknowledges. Europeanizing American literature was the cultural project of the writers associated with Partisan Review , Trilling among them. The shift from margins to center, from little magazines to institutions, contributed to a consensus version of high modernism that was compatible with consensus liberalism; both privileged tragedy, irony, and complexity. In rejecting a Marxist conception of society where bourgeoisie and proletariat were locked in decisive struggle for a pluralist model of percolating conflicts continually in negotiation, consensus liberalism ultimately sponsored domestic stability in the age of nuclear containment. In effect, the one big dialectic was replaced by a host of little dialectics. Trilling’s contribution to the discourse of consensus liberalism was to internalize it, to shift the pluralist drama of multiple dialectics to the individual psyche. Throughout the 1940s and early 1950s, he celebrated Keats’s famous “negative capability” (277), among other dialectical formulations, as the ideal posture of a complex mind confronting a complex reality. The opposing self was not the fence sitter of Stalinist contempt but the inner-directed, independent thinker who could sustain the psychological demands of freedom.

By the time The Liberal Imagination was released, Trilling had become disaffected with the field of American literature and gave up teaching it. He wrote to Norman Podhoretz of the freedom he felt, having “shaken off [its] contentious incubus” ( Life in Culture 197), but he confided to his notebooks another, idiosyncratic motive for withdrawing from teaching American literature: “I sh[ou]ld like to feel that I am myself a fact in American literature & that makes dealing with it awkward, or it denies my being part of it” (“From the Notebooks” 515). In other words, he wanted to be an American novelist more than a critic of American literature. Professionally, the field was something of a burden to him; he published little on the writers he claims to admire, with the exception of James. Although he never wrote that study of Twain, he hoped, it’s not clear for how long, that his fictional characters Jorris Buxton and Vincent Hammell could embody the yes and no of culture.

Kalisch touches upon a dinner party that takes place toward the end of the unfinished manuscript when Buxton silences a disagreement by assuring the most impassioned speaker, who has appealed to his judgment, “I don’t know, Garda, whether you’re right, but you’re by no means wrong” ( Journey Abandoned 115). Buxton’s statement conciliates each person at the table, but its effect on Vincent is most dramatic. He experiences an epiphany, a “sense of deliverance[,]” from this “irrefutable judgment[,]” although Buxton’s pronouncement resolves nothing (116). The distinguished elderly polymath provides a momentary benediction of moral realism, and not for the first time, on his impressionable young biographer. In the rest of the unfinished novel, Trilling sketches out a plan for an impassioned Buxton to undertake a heroic yet absurd quest, and the impact of that controversial act is that the members of Buxton’s circle would be anatomized. The large machinery required for this effort was never put in motion, however. We have only Vincent’s extravagant, foreshadowing aperçus. The drama of dialectical thinking, which Trilling put to such brilliant use in his essays, seemed more an act of will in his novels.

Turning at last to the topic of this issue, I’d like to consider for a moment the difference between a novel abandoned and a novel unfinished, one being the adjective I chose for the title of Trilling’s second novel (chronologically the first in terms of composition) and the other the one Kalisch chose for his essay. “Abandoned” gives Trilling agency over his creative work, as it suggests a decisive act, but the word may be misleading in its finality. Looking closer, I see that The Journey Abandoned is actually a post-postscript, a second coda following the last unfinished essay in the uniform edition: “Some Notes for an Autobiographical Lecture” in The Last Decade (1979). Diana Trilling, a fierce custodian of her husband’s reputation, decided to bring her monumental editing project to a conclusion with a draft, although she cordoned it off from Lionel’s published pieces in an appendix. Among the many insights of Kalisch’s essay, I find his expansive view of unfinishedness the most compelling. Trilling asks how a novel reaches its conclusion, says Kalisch, “while leaving room for second thoughts” (000). I’ll go even further to say that leaving room for second thoughts when closure is expected sums up Trilling’s habitual mode of thinking, not only in the 1940s but throughout his career. Although Kalisch doesn’t put it so baldly or abstractly, the unfinished novel hosts an infinitude of possibilities, creative as well as critical, alive and unresolved. To frame Trilling’s unfinished work most generously (which I am not always wont to do), it is, as an artifact, an unwitting homage to its author.

Dickstein Morris. Double Agent: The Critic and Society . Oxford UP , 1992 .

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Keats John . The Complete Poetical Works and Letters of John Keats , ed. Elisha Scudder Horace . Houghton, Mifflin, and Company , 1899 .

Trilling Lionel. “Contemporary American Literature in Its Relation to Ideas.” American Quarterly , vol. 1 , no. 3 , Fall 1949 , pp. 195 – 208 .

Trilling Lionel. E. M. Forster . Harcourt Brace Jovanovich , 1971 .

Trilling Lionel. The Liberal Imagination: Essays on Literature and Society . Harcourt Brace Jovanovich , 1979 .

Trilling Lionel. “From the Notebooks of Lionel Trilling.” Partisan Review , vol. 51 , no. 4 , 1984 , pp. 496 – 515 .

Trilling Lionel. The Journey Abandoned: The Unfinished Novel , ed. Murphy Geraldine . Columbia UP , 2008 .

Trilling Lionel. Life in Culture: Selected Letters of Lionel Trilling , ed. Kirsch Adam . Farrar, Straus and Giroux , 2018 .

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In his memoir, ‘safeguarding history,’ kenneth w. rendell chronicles his career as a dealer of historical documents and an expert on the detection of forgery.

essay on american history

Kenneth W. Rendell’s “ Safeguarding History: Trailblazing Adventures Inside the Worlds of Collecting and Forging History ” straddles several genres: While mainly a chatty, easygoing autobiography, it’s also a business history, a family memoir and a highly anecdotal introduction to an arcane field. Above all, though, it’s what we in the reviewing trade call “a fun read.”

Born in 1943 into a hard-working family in the Boston area, Rendell started collecting and selling coins at age 12, and — through a combination of industriousness, careful calculation and a willingness to follow his instincts — rose to become the leading American dealer in historical documents, an expert on the detection of forgery and a friend to distinguished people in many fields. This new book, for instance, carries a cover blurb by filmmaker Ken Burns, praise for Rendell from actor Tom Hanks and a preface by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin.

As he makes plain again and again, Rendell subscribes to the American Dream, the conviction that with determination, know-how and grit, anyone can become anything. “When I look back at myself at 12 years old,” he writes in recalling his youthful entry into buying and selling early American coins, “I realize that I had begun what became a lifelong process of always looking at what value I could add to a business situation. What would make me successful, how did I improve a process, how could I offer more service, why should I be successful?” That said, this old-fashioned approach to business success — find a need and fill it — doesn’t preclude a distinctly Thoreau-like approach to life in general: “The greatest adventure,” Rendell insists, “is in exploring yourself, discovering who you really are, learning what is important to you, and finding out what you really want and enjoy in life and — equally important — what you don’t want.” In his own case, Rendell recognizes that his family and time spent in the natural world are for him the great essentials for happiness.

A love letter to intellectualism

Rendell grew up in a rough-and-tumble area of Somerville, Mass. “I played ball with neighborhood kids and soon got to know the prison sentences for just about every crime. Everyone’s father seemed to be in prison, had just gotten out of prison, or was awaiting trial. The kids I knew all aspired to do better than their fathers — they weren’t going to get caught as often.” One day, though, a customer at the family’s down-at-the-heels drugstore paid for his purchase with what turned out to be an 1806 half-dollar. Rendell’s mother gave the oddity to her son, and the 12-year-old visited three coin dealers before selling it for $3.50. All the way home on the bus, he recalls, he said to himself, “Wow, this is the way to make a lot of money.” By age 14, Rendell was bringing out monthly two-page catalogues devoted to pre-revolutionary copper coins. As for that original 1806 half-dollar? He bought it back as soon as he could, and the coin “has sat on my desk ever since that day in 1954.”

At age 17, the youthful coin dealer sold his business to focus on a new passion — historical documents. Despite the emotional toll of his father’s sudden death the following year, Rendell kept at this new field while taking night-school courses in accounting and office management. During the following decade, he drew on what he learned from those classes, his own collecting savvy and, perhaps most important, the kind of social skills that Dale Carnegie would envy as he began to buy and sell presidential autographs, significant letters and unusual paper ephemera.

You need not be a history buff to delight in ‘The Manuscripts Club’

By the 1970s, Rendell was traveling to Europe, acquiring handwritten material by, among others, Michelangelo, Henry VIII, Sigmund Freud, Arthur Sullivan (of Gilbert and Sullivan fame), Paul Gauguin and Pablo Picasso. By this time, too, he had gained expertise in authenticating documents, in part by building on technical analyses undertaken by his staff or by calling for advice from leading experts on handwriting, ink and paper (among them my late friend Tony Cantu, a chief forensic scientist for the FBI). In April 1983, Rendell’s knowledge — and reputation — would be put to the test when Newsweek magazine asked him to look at newly discovered diaries believed to be those of Adolf Hitler. Were they genuine?

Despite authentication by German handwriting experts and the historian Hugh Trevor-Roper, not to mention pressure from German and English publishers, Rendell concluded that the diaries were fake. While the story of this notorious forgery is now well known, Rendell here takes us into his thinking as he was gradually sucked deeper into this complex case. It made him famous, though not always in ways he wished. In subsequent years, he would be asked to analyze the spurious Mormon documents peddled by the murderer Mark Hofmann; investigate the Jack the Ripper diary hoax ; and even, to his regret, explain why a set of handwritten lyrics alleged to have been penned by Elvis Presley was a scam.

During these same years, Rendell also appraised Ronald Reagan’s archives and Richard Nixon’s papers, created Bill and Melinda Gates’s library (largely focused on books and documents related to the history of technology), formed a major collection devoted to the American West, and gradually assembled — out of personal admiration for “the Greatest Generation” — artifacts and memorabilia for the International Museum of World War II, widely regarded as the most comprehensive such collection in the world and one that he still hopes can find a permanent home in Washington.

In the later chapters of his memoir, Rendell hobnobs more and more with the rich and famous, regularly flies around the country to dine with potential clients, and even goes on retreats with Silicon Valley moguls. On the advice of his wife and business partner, Shirley — a former television news reporter — he starts to display some of his more glamorous stock at New York’s chichi antiques showcase, the Winter Show. Though Rendell’s admiration for the egregiously successful can sometimes approach that of a fanboy, he also counts many of his customers as real friends: collector and magazine publisher Malcolm Forbes, financier Harlan Crow, John Eisenhower (son of Dwight D.) and distinguished historian Stephen Ambrose.

Overall, Rendell is chary about divulging the selling price of various documents, but he does occasionally reveal some financial details. When, in the 1970s, the federal government seized Nixon’s papers and the White House tapes to be sure nothing was destroyed, the courts eventually determined that the disgraced president was owed compensation. How much? Nixon’s lawyers hired Rendell in 1991 to appraise the value of these documents, initially balking at his consulting fee of $5,000 a day over a two-week period. Quickly enough, though, Rendell realized that what the lawyers really wanted was to extend as long as possible the litigation over the appropriate price for the papers and tapes. Only in 2000 was the case finally resolved, when the government agreed to pay $18 million. As Rendell wryly concludes: “The Nixon Library received $6 million. Federal estate and other taxes amounted to $3.7 million. The Nixon family received less than $90,000. Nixon’s law firm received $7,383,000.”

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Besides chronicling an astonishing career not yet over, “Safeguarding History” is chock-a-block with photographs of notable dealers, customers and charlatans; of Rendell’s various offices, located at differing times in Boston, New York, Tokyo and Beverly Hills; and of many of the rare documents he has acquired, including the marriage certificate of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, a threatening letter written by Jesse James, and the iconic World War II photograph of the raising of the American flag on Iwo Jima’s Mount Suribachi, signed by three of the Marines in the picture.

Still, it says a lot about Rendell that there are more family photographs than any other kind in “Safeguarding History.” His wife and children have clearly been the sheet anchors of his life. Many of the pictures show his son Jason, who tragically died in an accident at age 18. Others capture this athletic businessman skiing, mountaineering or hiking in Alaska and the West. Even now, at age 80, Rendell still looks trim and ready for new adventures as befits a man once dubbed the Indiana Jones of the collecting world.

Safeguarding History

Trailblazing Adventures Inside the Worlds of Collecting and Forging History

By Kenneth W. Rendell

Whitman Publishing. 328 pp. $24.95

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