Industrializing American Unit 14
From factories in San Francisco to sweatshops in New York, productivity flourished — fed by waves of immigrants from Asia and Europe. This unit explores how growing urbanism contributed to changing social norms, from the working classes to the elite.
Taming The American West Unit 13
Western settlers’ assumptions of an endless, bountiful frontier were
tested when they moved to the Great Plains and attempted to cultivate the unfamiliar, arid landscape. This experience led to the rise of populist politics, which championed farmers’ and industrial workers’
critique of political and economic powers.
A Mule Spinner Tells the U.S. Senate about Late 19th century Unemployment
Fall River, Massachusetts, mill worker Thomas O'Donnell (who had immigrated to the U.S. from England eleven years earlier) appeared before the U.S. Senate Committee on Education and Labor on October 18, 1883, to answer the panel's questions about working-class economic conditions. An unemployed mule spinner for more than half of the year, he described the introduction of new production methods at the Fall River, Massachusetts, textile factory where he worked as a mule spinner (a worker who tende
A Family Corresponds: Polish Immigrants in the Early 20th century
Many immigrants to the United States wrote letters back home. At the time they were written, the missives shaped the expectations of those who would soon make the same journey; today, they gave historians invaluable first-hand testimony of the immigrants' own experiences. These seventeen letters involved the children of a retired Polish farmer named Raczkowski. Adam Raczkowski went to the United States in 1904 with the financial assistance of his sister Helena Brylska [later Dabrowskis] and his
"A Decent Home . . . for Every American Family": Postwar Housing Shortage Victims Testify before Con
New home construction declined dramatically during the Great Depression as rents rose, reaching an all-time high in 1940. A persistent housing shortage continuing into the early 1950s forced families to separate and apartment dwellers to "double-up." The housing reform movement, largely ineffectual in the 1920s and 1930s, gathered strength in the postwar period. Labor and veteran groups pressured Congress and the White House to enact a comprehensive housing policy with money for public housing a
Social Realism-Class Consciousness in American Literature, 1875-1920-Unit 9
This program presents the authors of the American Gilded Age, such as Edith Wharton, and juxtaposes them with social realists like Anzia
Yezierska. These writers expose the double world that made up
turn-of-the-century New York: that of the elite and that of the poorest
of the poor. Which of these realities is the more truly American?
Regional Realism Depicting the Local in American Literature, 1865-1900-Unit 8
Set in the antebellum American South, but written after Emancipation,
Mark Twain's novel The Adventure's of Huckleberry Finn remains a
classic of American Literature. This episode compares Twain's depiction of Southern vernacular culture to that of Charles Chestnutt and Kate Chopin, and in doing so, introduces the hallmarks of American Realism.
Masculine Heros-American Expansion, 1820-1900-Unit 5
In 1898, Frederick Jackson Turner declared the frontier the defining
feature of American culture, but American authors had uncovered its
significance much earlier. This program turns to three key writers of
the early national period (James Fenimore Cooper, John Rollin Ridge, and Walt Whitman) and examines the influential visions of American manhood offered by each author.
A Chinese Immigrant Makes His Home in Turn-of-the-Century America
In this autobiographical sketch published in 1903 in the Independent magazine (which ran a series of about eighty short autobiographical "lifelets" of "undistinguished Americans" between 1902 and 1906), Chinese immigrant Lee Chew looked back on his passage to America, and his years as a launderer and merchant on both the East and West coasts.
African American Daily Life
These photos depict typical daily activities of African Americans before the Civil Rights era.
African American Daily Conditions
These photographs depict typical daily activities of African Americans before the Civil Rights movement gained force. From the segregated schools of the Deep South to the bustling cities of the North, the backdrop of different communities reveals a range of experiences.
Recommended for: Grades 6-12
Early Image: A collection of illustrations from popular sources.
Early Image is a collection of extinct-animal paintings and sketches produced before 1923 (and therefore in the public domain). Some of the works are of Victorian age and may lend atmosphere to a class emphasizing the history of geology. The works are divided into two categories; prehistoric life before KT and prehistoric life after KT.
American Memory: North Carolina educator's guide
Each month during 2007, LEARN NC will feature an in-depth look at one aspect of the Library of Congress' American Memory with a special focus on North Carolina materials.
Ghosts, Witches and Portents in Early Modern Europe: Seminar 2.7: 'Visible Sermons': Portents and th
Ghosts, Witches and Portents in Early Modern Europe: Seminar 2.7: 'Visible Sermons': Portents and the Formation of Protestant Piety
Ghosts, Witches and Portents in Early Modern Europe: Seminar 2.8: Providence and the Natural World
Ghosts, Witches and Portents in Early Modern Europe: Seminar 2.8: Providence and the Natural World
Ghosts, Witches and Portents in Early Modern Europe: Seminar 2.9: Monstrous Births and unnatural Hap
Ghosts, Witches and Portents in Early Modern Europe: Seminar 2.9: Monstrous Births and unnatural Happenings
Ghosts, Witches and Portents in Early Modern Europe: Seminar 2.10: Almanacs, Astrology and Change
Ghosts, Witches and Portents in Early Modern Europe: Seminar 2.10: Almanacs, Astrology and Change
Ghosts, Witches and Portents in Early Modern Eruope: Seminar 2.11: Astrology's Contested Role
Ghosts, Witches and Portents in Early Modern Eruope: Seminar 2.11: Astrology's Contested Role
Ghosts, Witches and Portents in Early Modern Europe: Seminar 2.12: Prophets, Seers and Messiahs
Ghosts, Witches and Portents in Early Modern Europe: Seminar 2.12: Prophets, Seers and Messiahs
Ghosts, Witches and Portents in Early Modern Eruope: Seminar 2.13: Prophecy and the Millennium: The
Ghosts, Witches and Portents in Early Modern Eruope: Seminar 2.13: Prophecy and the Millennium: The World Turned Upside Down
