Chapter 24: Containment and the Truman Doctrine

In the summer of 1959, Vice President Richard Nixon traveled to Moscow to formally open…

Chapter 19: The Progressive Era: Eugenics

A. Governor Samuel W. Pennypacker, Veto of Eugenics Law, March 30, 1905 https://document-readings.s3.amazonaws.com/Documents+and+Debates/Volume+2/Chapter+19/ch19+Pennypacker+Veto+of+Eugenics+Law+1905.mp3 Commonwealth of…

Chapter 10: The Market Revolution and (The Myth of?) Free Labor

A. Orestes Bronson, The Laboring Classes, 1840 It may be laid down as a general…

In the Event of a Moon Disaster: “The Safire Memo”

To: H. R. Haldeman  From: Bill Safire  July 18, 1969.  IN EVENT OF MOON DISASTER:   Fate has…

The People’s God: Its Effect on Health and Christianity

Source: Mary Baker Eddy, “The People’s God: Its Effect on Health and Christianity,” The Christian…

Stimulants and Narcotics

Source: Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing, (Washington, D. C: Review and Herald Publishing…

Address at Rice University on the Nation’s Space Effort

Source: John F. Kennedy, Address at Rice University, Houston, Texas, 12 September 1962, NARA, JFKPOF-040-001. We meet at…

D-Day Dress, Platoon Leader

Source: illustration 20a from the 29th Infantry Combat Narrative by Lieutenant Jack Shea. DOD via…

Organized Evacuation of Civilian Populations in Civil Defense

Source: Papers of Harry S. Truman, President’s Secretary’s Files, National Security Files, box 217, folder…

Speech on the Fair Labor Standards Act

Source: Congressional Record, 75th Cong., 3rd sess., vol. 83, pt. 6 (May 16, 1938), pp.…

Message to Congress on Establishing Minimum Wages and Maximum Hours

Source: Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Message to Congress on Establishing Minimum Wages and Maximum Hours.” Online…

“Detroit Digs In”

Source: The Nation 144:3 (January 16, 1937), pp. 64-66. Available online from The Social Welfare…

Speech on the National Labor Relations Act

Source: Congressional Record, 74th Cong., 1st sess., Vol. 79, pt. 8 (February 21, 1935), pp.…

“The Right to Strike”

Source: The Nation, 137: 3566 (November 8, 1933) p. 530 - 531. Nearly a million…

Call for Legislation to Create the Tennessee Valley Authority

Source: “Message to Congress Suggesting the Tennessee Valley Authority,” April 10, 1933. Online by Gerhard…

Letter from Bonus Army leader to President Hoover

Source: Letter to President Hoover from Philo D. Burke, Liaison Officer, B. E. F.; July…

Special Message to the Congress on the Economic Recovery Program

Source: Herbert Hoover, “Special Message to the Congress on the Economic Recovery Program,” January 4,…

Speech on the Smoot-Hawley Tariff

Source: Representative Milligan, speaking on Smoot-Hawley Tariff, on July 3, 1930, 71st Cong., 2d sess.,…

Statement on the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Bill

Source: Herbert Hoover, “Statement on the Tariff Bill,” June 16, 1930. Online by Gerhard Peters…

Statement announcing a Series of Conferences with Representatives of Business, Industry, Agriculture, and Labor

Source: Herbert Hoover, “Statement Announcing a Series of Conferences With Representatives of Business, Industry, Agriculture,…

The Effects of Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Source: Chapter IV: “Signposts,” United States Strategic Bombing Survey (Government Printing Office: Washington, D.C., 1946),…

Press Release Alerting the Nation About the Atomic Bomb

Source: Press Release by the White House, August 6, 1945 (Ayers Papers, U. S. Army…

Potsdam Declaration

Source: Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender, Issued, at Potsdam, July 26, 1945 (Birth of…

Executive Order No. 9346: Establishing a Committee on Fair Employment Practice

Source: Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Executive Order 9346 Establishing a Committee on Fair Employment Practice,” May…

The First Lady Visits Tuskegee

Source: Eleanor Roosevelt, My Day: A Comprehensive, Electronic Edition of Eleanor Roosevelt’s “My Day” Columns.…

Eleanor Roosevelt with “Chief” Charles Alfred Johnson

Eleanor Roosevelt, My Day: A Comprehensive, Electronic Edition of Eleanor Roosevelt’s “My Day” Columns. Online…

The Kitchen Debate

Library of Congress Digital Collection, https://goo.gl/H5xk3x. This text is taken from The Cold War: Core…

Recommendations on the Immediate Use of Nuclear Weapons

Michael B. Stoff et al., eds., The Manhattan Project: A Documentary Introduction to the Atomic…

Letter to Secretary of War Henry Stimson

https://goo.gl/zyQJro From: J R Oppenheimer To: Henry Stimson, Secretary of War Date: August 17, 1945…

Press Release Alerting the Nation About the Atomic Bomb

Press release by the White House, August 6, 1945 (Ayers Papers, U.S. Army Press releases,…

Minutes of Meetings held at the White House on Monday, June 18, 1945

“The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb Research File,” Truman Presidential Library. https://goo.gl/goPYGA DETAILS OF…

Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender (Potsdam Proclamation)

Foreign Relations of the United States, Diplomatic Papers, The Conference of Berlin (Potsdam Conference), 1945,…

Buck v. Bell

Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200 (1927). Available online at Justia. https://goo.gl/mn3RFr Mr. JUSTICE HOLMES…

Judgment on Eugenics Law

Laughlin, Eugenical Sterilization in the United States, 269. Judgment: SUPREME COURT OF INDIANA. November Term,…

“Better Baby Contest,” Indiana State Fair

Better Baby contest at the Indiana State Fair, 1931. Indiana State Archives. “Better Baby” contests…

Veto of Pennsylvania Eugenics Law

Harry Hamilton Laughlin, Eugenical Sterilization in the United States (Chicago: Psychopathic Laboratory of the Municipal…

New York Times: “Pastors for Eugenics”

“Pastors for Eugenics,” New York Times, June 6, 1913, 10. Drs. Keigwin and Hillis Invite…

Eugenics as a New Creed

Stanley Hall, “Eugenics: Its Ideals and What It Is Going to Do,” Religious Education 6,…

Documents and Debates in American History and Government: Vol. 2, 1865-2009

This collection of documents presents American history from 1865 to 2009 as a series of…

The Laboring Classes

Orestes Bronson, The Laboring Classes: An Article from the Boston Quarterly Review, (Boston: Benjamin H.…

Massachusetts Lawmakers Investigate Working Conditions in Lowell

Massachusetts House Document no. 50, March, l845, reprinted in John Commons, ed., A Documentary History…

Time Table for Lowell Mills

[caption id="attachment_24251" align="alignleft" width="806"] Time table of the Lowell mills, to take effect on and…

“Song of the Spinners” from the Lowell Offering

Lowell Offering, April 1841 (Lowell, Mass.: Printed by A. Watson), p. 32. Courtesy American Antiquarian…

Notes on the State of Virginia: Queries 18 & 19

Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia ([1781-82]; London: John Stockdale, 1787), 270-75. Query…

Herbert Spencer and the Doctrine of Evolution

A Lecture delivered before the New York Liberal Club The change that has taken place…

State of the Union Address (1869)

The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, ed. John Y. Simon (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press,…