Dec
17
Navajo Windtalkers: America’s Secret Weapon When the United States fought World War II, they ran the constant risk of information being intercepted over radio waves. Strong codes were crucial in communicating military messages, and the Japanese proved to be excellent decoders. Eventually, with the help of Navajo people, the government developed an effective code that …
Dec
10
Lowell Factory Girls of the 19th Century During the first half of the 1800s, girls and young women from throughout New England were recruited to process cotton for textile mills in Lowell, Massachusetts. The majority female workforce was unusual for contemporary factories. Their unique work culture came to national attention when the women organized for …
Dec
04
John Scopes and the Teaching of Evolution In the mid-1920s, many young Americans flaunted long-established Victorian culture. Women were voting, illegal booze was flowing through speakeasies, and art had become abstract. Traditionalists in the South responded with a wave of religious revivalism. Journalists seized upon one particular court trial in Tennessee, for it exemplified this …
Nov
27
John O’Sullivan and America’s Manifest Destiny When leaders wish to conquer foreign lands, they invariably put forth a list of justifications. In America in the 1840s, politicians and others invoked the phrase “manifest destiny” to optimistically explain continual territorial expansion by the United States. In modern terms, manifest destiny might be described as something that …
Nov
27
Japanese Internment Camps in the United States Just off of US Highway 395, at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, motorists can find one of the black eyes of American history. There stands the Manzanar War Relocation Center in which thousands of Japanese-Americans were confined during World War II. It is a harsh reminder …
Nov
20
Jackie Robinson and the Integration of US Baseball In 1945, when Jackie Robinson batted .387 for the Negro League Kansas City Monarchs, he established himself as an excellent athlete. Two years later, when he stepped onto the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Ebbets Field, he’d become a civil rights icon. Jackie Robinson was the first African American major …
Nov
19
Gold Fever and the Growth of California One January day in 1848, a man named James Marshall was inspecting a saw mill under construction for his employer. Suddenly he noticed an unusual rock sparkling in the overturned earth. Was this a nugget of gold? Marshall tried to break the rock with a hammer. It didn’t …
Nov
13
George Washington’s Federal Government When a modern US president travels, he or she expects the electorate to cover the cost. In 1789, however, George Washington borrowed his inauguration travel funds from a buddy. In many ways, the “Father of Our Country” was starting a government from scratch. The federal government grew rapidly in the years …
Nov
12
General Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad Araminta Ross, later named Harriet Tubman, was born into slavery circa 1820. She was raised under harsh slave conditions in Dorchester County, Maryland; she was subjected to whippings even as a small child. When Harriet was twelve years old, a white overseer struck her in the head with …
Nov
05
France and the American Revolution In March of 2003, after France opposed a UN invasion of Iraq, two US Republicans removed all references to French fries from menus affiliated with the US House of Representatives. In the House cafeteria, potatoes became “freedom fries”. In a time of such Francophobia, some Americans might be surprised by …
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