When a new life came from the independence of Britain, a new nation and a new government began to evolve. During the aftermath of the war, delegates met in Philadelphia and tried to establish a form of government, which created the Articles of Confederation in 1787. It was the first constitution of...

Josephine Baker Josephine Baker made a name for herself by sashaying her way onto a Paris stage during the 1920s with a comic, yet the sensual appeal that took Europe by storm. Famous for barely there dresses and no holds barred dance routines, her exotic beauty generated nicknames black Venus,...

Spirit What a powerful presentation. This film really grabbed my attention, and just didn't let go; it was truly beautiful. I thoroughly enjoyed the narrators' story that unfolded through the dancing and the music. I found myself in awe of the intricately designed costumes; they wer...

The Jazz Age The 1920s were the most explosive 10 years of the century. It was a time of change for everyone and everything. New types of music were being developed and composers were trying their best to make advances to become known. Also many cultural changes occurred during this time,...

Walt Whitman Walt Whitman's work has now become legendary. Although he has that accomplishment for his poetry, he had a rough beginning. Whitman was born on May 31, 1819 in Long Island, New York. He was the second of nine children. He attended school in Brooklyn after his family moved t...

The large ships drew in. The natives had no idea what was going on, but they were horrified. Then they saw them, men with pale faces, shiny metals on their breasts, giant horses, and weapons. The natives would become even more horrified once they learned the disturbing truth, but for many it was ...

The Black Soldier in the Early Republic From the beginning Black Americans have had to deal with the dual expectations that were expected of them by the United States. Often there was resistance to allowing blacks to join the military and when they were allowed they usually drew the most...

Was Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Policy motivated by Humanitarian Impulses? Taking Sides/Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in American History. History 170 Instructor Johnson Historians have long debated on whether or not Andrew Jackson's ...

The Causes/origins of the Civil War Until the 1840's, the tensions between North and South remained relatively contained. The issue that started the tensions between the North and South, was the issue of the expanding of slavery. In the North, was the increasingly powerful abolitionist move...

Freedom in a World of Conformity (The Matrix) John F. Kennedy, Winston Churchill and Pierre Elliot Trudeau were visionaries of the free world that drew the populace into their dreams. These great leaders did not have to thrive off conformists or tell their followers how to act, function and beh...

The limitation of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win and their participants know it. Hence, rioting is not revolutionary but reactionary because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis, but it must be followed by a sense of futility. Martin Luther King, Jr., T...

A momentous chapter in American history is the story of the making and ratifying of the Constitution of the United States. The challenge before the Constitutional Convention was to draft a document that would harness political power in a responsible fashion. The direction of the young country&apo...

In 1990 the U.S. Census Bureau reported that 57,985,595 people in the United States claimed some measure of German ancestry. This makes up almost a quarter of the U.S. population. German immigration started as early as 1607. The first three Germans to migrate to the U.S. were, F.Un...

The affects of the Civil War, and the actions that led to the war were very detrimental to the United States. The nation was not in good shape, and was all divided up. President Abraham Lincoln saw this division, and wanted to reconstruct the nation, by restoring national unity. Reconst...

The Sixties split the skies. Only Civil and two world wars so neatly divided our history into a Before and After. And the Sixties were more divisive than World War II, which drew more people for the war effort. The Sixties drove people apart – husbands from wives, children from parents,...

Strong Response The expansion of the American frontier played a large part in the history and making of the United States, but how big was that role? Historian Frederick Turner felt that the American frontier played the largest influence on our country's history. Turner also believes t...

The flood of refugees and disorder of democracy in the island nation of Haiti created the great controversy of whether the United States (US) should intervene and restore order in the country. The US turned to its worldview of disengagement to provide guidance; the conclusion questioned if even a...

There are many important things that happened in history. One of them would be World War II. This was a very important time in America. Many men and women during the holocaust were losing their lives because of one man's beliefs of "ethnic cleansing." This was one of the lowest points...

Buo Doi To understand who Ricky was and what he became you have to look at what he was exposed to and what he went through starting at a very young age. As a child in Vietnam he had no childhood as he worked selling bread on the streets to help his family. The abandoned childhood made him angry a...

World events after 1939 drew the United States into greater international involvement. These events forced the United States to abandon its isolationist foreign policy in favor of more active global involvement. The need for military security and the protection of democratic ideals have shaped ...

First actions like the Treaty of Wanghia with China and the Treaty of Kanagawa with Japan marked the turnaround of the nation's policy to stay away from other countries' affairs. George Washington's famous words "avoidance of entangling alliances" were forgotten. More than ...

The war in Iraq was wrong and could have been handled more effectively than going straight to war. This past year, The United States and Iraq were at war because Saddam Hussein did not cooperate with United Nations weapon inspectors or with the United States. The United States felt that Saddam was h...

Settlement on the Great Plains The Great Plains region was a vast region of vacant land ready for westward expansion. The lure of open spaces and inexpensive land was so great that many pioneers risked dangerous conditions to make it to the area. The Great Plains is the section of land extending...

War of Deception Newspapers are a major influence on the way people perceive the world. It is a source which connects readers to many different topics of interest. Newspapers have also become a competitive business. With a desire to increase circulation and obtain more advertising re...

Native American culture in the western United States suffered greatly during the mid-1800's. Intrusions by white settlers believing in Manifest Destiny, or the obvious belief that Americans were meant to expand from the Atlantic to the Pacific, caused the Natives to be driven from their homelan...