U.S. history
Revolution, citizenship, civil rights, reform and historical change.
Cold War Origins: Economic Security or Soviet Expansion?
Pollard emphasizes economic security as a cause of early Cold War policy, while Patterson stresses perceived Soviet threats. The Marshall Plan supports Pollard’s explanation; the Truman Doctrine provides a distinct development that strengthens Patterson’s security-centered argument.
Cold War Policies and the End of the Cold War, 1945–1991
The Reagan administration’s nuclear policy provoked both mass protest and doubts among its own advisers. Later negotiations helped ease U.S.–Soviet tensions, but the evidence supports viewing them as one contributor—not a complete explanation—for the Cold War’s end.
U.S. Government Policy and Political Change, 1783–1860
An evidence-based historical argument connects early-republic policies that widened political participation to contrasting responses to political change, then explains how the Kansas–Nebraska Act intensified sectional divisions.
European and Native American Conflict, 1500–1763: Causes and Their Importance
Conflict between Europeans and Native Americans grew from material competition and struggles over political authority, while cultural and religious differences shaped but did not dictate how encounters unfolded. Comparing early expeditions, colonial wars, trade, and alliances shows how the importance of these causes varied over time.
Mary Church Terrell and Black Women’s Organizing, 1865–1945
Terrell’s 1897 address called Black women to combine equality advocacy, racial pride, and organized service. Reconstruction-era institution building helped make that call possible, and its principles find a clear later expression in Black women’s participation in the 1913 suffrage procession.
Competing Interpretations of the American Revolution
A comparison of Gordon-Reed’s and Breen’s interpretations, using the election of 1800 and the Great Compromise to examine both the Revolution’s unequal promise of liberty and its transformation of political institutions.
The Fourteenth Amendment and Reconstruction, 1865–1877
An explanatory essay on how the Fourteenth Amendment shifted responsibility for protecting individual rights toward the federal government during Reconstruction, while leaving enforcement and political conflicts unresolved.
Federal Power Debates in Early America, 1763–1840
An explanatory essay tracing how disputes over British authority, the Constitution’s allocation of federal power, and the federal judiciary’s response in Marbury reshaped arguments about national authority between 1763 and 1840.
Transatlantic Trade and Colonial Society, 1607–1776
Expanding Atlantic commerce reshaped colonial consumption, economies, and relationships with Britain, while reinforcing older inequalities and leaving regional differences and local political institutions intact. After the Seven Years’ War, imperial efforts to regulate trade helped turn commercial ties into a source of conflict.
Political Debates and Government Power in the United States, 1910–1970
A historical comparison of the 1912 debate over federal regulation, the New Deal’s economic intervention, and the NAACP’s pursuit of federal action for civil rights.
The End of Reconstruction and Its Consequences, 1877–1900
An evidence-based argument that the end of Reconstruction weakened Black political participation in the South by removing federal protection as white Democrats regained power.
National Security and U.S. Foreign Policy in the Cold War, 1945–1991
A qualified historical argument that national-security concerns substantially reshaped U.S. foreign policy through military reorganization, alliances, nuclear competition, and intervention, while political limits and competing goals constrained particular choices.