When the Great Powers sat down to iron out peace after World War I, they sought vengeance rather than a peaceful world. Created by Sal Khan.
Amidst tensions over European political and territorial boundaries, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian terrorist in 1914 derailed peace in the western world by sparking World War Ione of the highest-casualty conflicts in modern times. While European nations quickly engaged, the United States immediately declared neutrality. By 1917, however, remaining neutral was no longer an option. The Great War would bring the United States out of isolationism and onto the world stage. It would also change life on the American home front forever. A centralized government took control of American life in an unprecedented fashion by instating a mandatory military draft, controlling industries, initiating food and ration restrictions, and launching elaborate campaigns to encourage patriotism. One of the most important, if temporary, changes brought by the war at home came from the stifled flow of labor, as men were pulled away by the draft and immigration slowed. The need for American labor provided second-class citizens, such as women and African Americans, a brief opportunity for better jobs. This glimpse would help foment in them a desire for more and equal opportunities after they were pulled away once more at wars end. This exhibition was created as part of the DPLAs Public Library Partnerships Project by collaborators from Digital Commonwealth. Exhibition organizer: Anna Fahey-Flynn.
This collection uses primary sources to explore the politics of the Gilded Age. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.
The White House is a stage for the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to the next. Discover how the transfer from John Adams to Thomas Jefferson set this precedent. Featuring Dr. Matthew Costello, Senior Historian at the White House Historical Association.
Yes, the unit covers the reasons the Japanese bombed Pearl Harobr, the planning of Pearl Harbor, the execution of Pearl Harbor and the aftermath of Pearl Harbor. It includes a plan of the day to day plan, articles, primary sources, secondary sources, digital reviews, and on line assesments.
This “open textbook” is a social and cultural history of the people of Oregon representing powerful figures from the dominant Euro-American culture, the marginalized and oppressed, and social and political reformers who shaped the historical legacy of the state. It is a story of the diverse array of immigrants who helped build the state and strengthen it. The title is a recollection of the racial fantasies that European-American settlers created in their expansionist vision of the West and the state of Oregon. Initially the Oregon Territory was built on intolerance and racial exclusivity, but eventually Oregon embraces its diversity, but not without struggle and heartache. Our journey through the past starts with an essential question, “Who are the people of Oregon?”
This collection uses primary sources to explore perspectives on the French and Indian War. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.
Timothy O’Sullivan, A Harvest of Death, 1863, albumen print, 17.2 × 22.5 cm, illustration in Alexander Gardner’s Photographic Sketchbook of the War, 1866 (Library of Congress) A conversation between Dr. Kimberly Kutz Elliott and Dr. Steven Zucker. Created by Steven Zucker, Smarthistory, and Kimberly Kutz.
This lesson is designed to emphasize how individuals' worldviews affect their method of expressing themselves and of telling stories. People describing the same thing will convey very different things depending on their worldviews (composed of their personal philosophy, religion, and even their job or discipline). Students will compare primary documents and analyze the motives of the speaker, and the author's intended audience. They will respond to these comparisons in writing and then by creating a representation of what they studied for a timeline.
Plessy v. Ferguson was an 1896 Supreme Court case concerning whether "separate but equal" railway cars for black and white Americans violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In this video, Kim discusses the case with scholars Jamal Greene and Earl Maltz.
Although the New England colonies differed from the Chesapeake colonies in their economies and environments, both regions shared forms of government that were unusually democratic for the time period, as well as a policy of excluding Native Americans from their societies.
This collection uses primary sources to explore the Populist Movement. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.
Poster circulated in Philadelphia in 1839 to discourage the coming of the railroad, 1839
What can a work of art reveal about a period of American history? This set of fifteen teaching posters features selected artworks from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, National Portrait Gallery, and Archives of American Art on five historical themes.
This collection uses primary sources to explore the postwar growth of the American suburbs. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.
In 1607, a party of Englishmen landed in a place they called Virginia. They followed in the footsteps of Sir Walter Raleigh, who had visited Virginia (which, at the time, included North Carolina) with a party of settlers in 1585. The colony founded by Raleigh’s party failed, weakened by lack of supplies and irregular contact with England.
To the people who already lived in the area, this was the land of the Powhatan Confederacy, a vast regional network of allied communities living under the leadership of Wahunsenacah (also known as Powhatan). Contact between the English and the people of the Powhatan confederacy was fraught with misunderstanding and conflict. This owed a great deal to the fact that the English were in the Americas to form a colony and make money for the Virginia Company of London, the corporation that had launched them on their voyage west. The Powhatan, on the other hand, lived out their values of kinship, allyship, and reciprocity in a way that was at first incomprehensible to the English, and that later they firmly rejected.
This site illustrates the story of settlement on the Great Plains. Family letters of one homesteader express personal insight into the joy, despair, and determination in his struggle to establish a home on the prairie.
How can we look critically at a piece of art and use it to learn about the political, social, and geographic environment it which it was created? This teacher-developed graphic organizer instructs elementary-schoolers to look at art critically and contextually. Students answer Who, What, When, Where, Why and How questions about one or two key works of art relating to their chosen tour theme.
How can we look critically at a piece of art and use it to learn about the political, social, and geographic environment it which it was created? This teacher-developed graphic organizer instructs middle-schoolers to look at art critically and contextually. Students compare and contrast two works of art from selected time periods.
Print the Preamble of the U.S. Constitution sheet seen here. There are 7 spaces for you to draw your idea of what each phrase means. What does “We the People” look like to you? Draw your idea on the dotted line.