The Cold War: Introduction

The Cold War was the most important political and diplomatic issue of the early postwar period. The main Cold War enemies were the United States and the Soviet Union. The Cold war got its name because both sides were afraid of fighting each other directly. In such a “hot war,” nuclear weapons might destroy everything. [...]

Roosevelt’s first war…on the Depression

Image via Wikipedia By late winter 1933, the nation had already endured more than three years of economic depression. Statistics revealing the depth of the Great Depression were staggering. More than 11,000 of 24,000 banks had failed, destroying the savings of depositors. Millions of people were out of work and seeking jobs; additional millions were [...]

The Consequences of the Great Depression

Though the U.S. economy had gone into depression six months earlier, the Great Depression may be said to have begun with a catastrophic collapse of stock-market prices on the New York Stock Exchange in October 1929. During the next three years stock prices in the United States continued to fall, until by late 1932 they [...]

Civil War Soldiers: Letter home

“Chattanooga July 27th, 1864 My dear wife, You will perceive from the heading of this that I am at Chattanooga. I obtained the position I have been seeking so long and am now with the Judge Advocate on Gen. Thomas’ staff. I get 40 cents a day or $12 a month extra and 40 cents [...]

Charles II: Accidental Architect of Empire?

It can be argued that Charles II was the real architect of the British Empire. Though perhaps, he wasn’t an intentional one

Cold War: A Level Bibliography

Reference Books

Cold War : Notes

The immediate and tangible causes of the cold war begin with World War Two itself. On July 25, 1945, two months after Germany had surrendered, the Big Three — Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and Harry Truman — met at POTSDAM in order to discuss the fate of Germany. By 1945, Stalin was the veteran revolutionary, [...]

Counterfactual: Slavery & the American Constitution

Counterfactual History – slavery by Jon Mandle on September 13, 2006 Although the U.S. Constitution of 1787 does not include the word “slavery”, there are five more-or-less direct references to it, and other more indirect references. Article IV, Section 2, is the fugitive slave clause – any person “held in service or labor in one [...]

The ice cold war?

Considering the territorial factors in the Cold War, does this week’s news about melting ice caps suggest the possibility of an imminent “ice cold war”? Roger Howard explains:

Puritanism: The Shaping of America

As part of the iconography and symbology by which a sense of the American past is constructed, the entry of the Puritans into 17th century New England has been interpreted and re-interpreted as a shaping force of what has been recurrently described as that peculiar and essential figure, the being somehow common to every component [...]