U.S. history
Revolution, citizenship, civil rights, reform and historical change.
Civil Rights Activism and Government Action, 1940–1980
An evidence-based argument that civil rights activism was a major driver of federal action between 1940 and 1980, while recognizing the independent roles of courts, Congress, and the limits of legal change.
Agriculture and Migration to North America, 1607–1776
Agriculture shaped colonial migration through both the pull of economic opportunity and the demand for labor. Comparing Virginia and New England shows a shared connection to the Atlantic economy but a difference in how directly agricultural production drew settlers and organized settlement.
Native American Adaptation to European Colonization, 1500–1754
Native societies adapted to colonization through trade, diplomacy, political choices, and cultural change. Their responses differed across communities and depended on the circumstances of colonial contact.
Federal Government Debates and Political Parties, 1800–1854
Federal-power debates helped parties define their principles, rally voters, and respond to new conflicts. Their influence interacted with economic pressures, leadership, electoral strategy, territorial expansion, and sectional conflict over slavery.
Religion and the Development of North American Colonies, 1600–1700
A comparison of religion’s influence on Massachusetts Bay and Maryland, set against European migration to the Americas. The supplied primary sources document later events, so they can establish part of the colonies’ subsequent political context but cannot verify claims about religious life in the seventeenth century.
1960s Social Activism and Conservative Political Change
An evidence-based comparison of interpretations that emphasize protest movements or conservative organization as forces of social change from 1945 to 1980.
Reform Movements and Industrialization in the United States, 1820–1900
An evidence-based comparison of labor organizing, child-labor reform, and farmers’ campaigns against corporate power, showing how reformers used petitions, legislation, and political pressure to address industrial change.
Economic Change and Federal Involvement, 1865–1940
Reconstruction-era struggles over land, labor, and economic independence elicited sharply different responses from freedpeople and white Southerners. Later, Depression-era unemployment helped expand federal action, including government employment programs.
Sectional Tensions and American Society, 1800–1848
An evidence-based argument about how slavery and expansion intensified sectional conflict, shaped reform and party politics, and remained constrained by cross-regional coalitions and national institutions.
The New Deal and Working-Class Political Change
An essay explains how Cohen’s account connects Chicago workers’ political participation and Democratic support with expectations of greater federal responsibility, using the Social Security Act as a separate development of the New Deal era.
Settler Expansion in North America, 1754–1800
An argument that settler expansion was a major force in late-eighteenth-century North America, shaping Indigenous resistance and government policy while interacting with imperial rivalry, war, and political independence.
Social Change Movements in the United States, 1945–1980: Evaluating Their Effects
A comparative argument weighs the legal, political-participation, and public-expectation effects of civil-rights and women’s-rights movements, while explaining why their gains were uneven across communities.