Showing results for "American Awakening" in Americas

In 1740, New England experienced a social earthquake in the figure of a 21-year-old preacher. People were abuzz with his stunning oratory, his colorful theatrics, and his almost ungodly sense of power and presence. When George Whitefield arrived in the small towns and hamlets that made up the American colonies, he proved to be much more than anything the residents could have expected. His reputation and growing legend had been built on his brilliant speeches and frightening tirades, and his fame now engulfed what would become America.

As the United States marks the 150th anniversary of our defining national drama, 1861 presents a gripping and original account of how the Civil War began. 1861 is an epic of courage and heroism beyond the battlefields. Early in that fateful year, a second American revolution unfolded, inspiring a new generation to reject their parents' faith in compromise and appeasement, to do the unthinkable in the name of an ideal.

Franklin Roosevelt awoke on September 1, 1939 to the news that Germany invaded Poland, signaling the start of World War II. The president warned for years that Hitler's fascist regime posed an existential threat to democracy, but the American public remained stubbornly isolationist as fascist sympathizing groups, egged on by right wing media stars promoting anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, plotted to overthrow the president. The situation was dire, and Roosevelt found himself facing an unexpected adversary: Charles Lindbergh.

Booker T. Washington's essay "The Awakening of the Negro" was published in the September 1896 issue of The Atlantic. It is a semi-autobiographical essay that sets forth Washington’s vision of uplifting his people. He relates how his work began at Tuskegee, Alabama, in 1881, in a small shanty and church without a dollar’s worth of property. The spirit of work and of industrial thrift, with aid from the state and generosity from the North, enabled them to develop an institution of 800 students from 19 states.

New York Times bestselling author and acclaimed presidential historian Douglas Brinkley chronicles the rise of environmental activism during the Long Sixties (1960-1973), telling the story of an indomitable generation that saved the natural world under the leadership of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon...

There is renewed interest in socialism in the US and the UK, particularly among young people. Who are these new socialists? Why now? In The Socialist Awakening author John B. Judis, who brilliantly explained the rise of populism and nationalism in his two most recent books, The Populist...