# Library of History > A comprehensive, accessible guide to American history — narrative articles, era guides, and an interactive timeline covering the American story from pre-colonial indigenous civilizations through the twenty-first century. Independent, non-partisan, grounded in primary sources. An AXIA Enterprises property. ## Main - [Library of History](https://libraryofhistory.org/): A comprehensive guide to American history from pre-colonial indigenous civilizations through the 21st century. Narrative articles, timelines, and primary sources. - [American History Timeline](https://libraryofhistory.org/timeline.html): An interactive timeline of American history spanning from the first peoples to the present day — key moments that shaped a nation. - [All Articles](https://libraryofhistory.org/articles/): Browse all articles and reports on American history — narrative articles, battle pages, profiles, and primary source documents organized by era. - [About](https://libraryofhistory.org/about.html): About Library of History — our mission, approach, and how we organize the American story into fourteen eras from pre-colonial times through the present. ## Eras - [The Civil Rights Movement](https://libraryofhistory.org/eras/civil-rights-movement.html): Explore The Civil Rights Movement era (1954–1975) — from Brown v. Board and the Montgomery Bus Boycott to the March on Washington and the Voting Rights Act. - [Civil War & Reconstruction (1860–1877)](https://libraryofhistory.org/eras/civil-war-reconstruction.html): Explore the Civil War and Reconstruction era of American history (1860–1877): the bloodiest war in American history, emancipation, Lincoln's assassination, and the struggle to rebuild the Union. - [The Cold War & Postwar America](https://libraryofhistory.org/eras/cold-war-postwar-america.html): Explore The Cold War & Postwar America era (1945–1964) — from the Truman Doctrine and the Korean War to the Cuban Missile Crisis and the assassination of President Kennedy. - [Colonial America](https://libraryofhistory.org/eras/colonial-america.html): Explore the Colonial America era (1607–1765) — from the founding of Jamestown and the arrival of enslaved Africans to the Salem witch trials and the French & Indian War that reshaped the continent. - [Expansion & the Jacksonian Era (1828–1860)](https://libraryofhistory.org/eras/expansion-jacksonian-era.html): Explore the Expansion and Jacksonian Era of American history (1828–1860): Manifest Destiny, the Trail of Tears, the Mexican-American War, the Gold Rush, and the deepening slavery crisis. - [The Gilded Age & Industrialization](https://libraryofhistory.org/eras/gilded-age-industrialization.html): Explore the Gilded Age and Industrialization era (1877–1900) — from railroad barons and industrial titans to massive immigration, labor battles, and America's emergence as a global power. - [Modern America](https://libraryofhistory.org/eras/modern-america.html): Explore Modern America (1975–2001) — from the post-Vietnam reckoning and Reagan revolution to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the rise of personal computing, and America as the world's sole superpower. - [Pre-Colonial & Indigenous America](https://libraryofhistory.org/eras/pre-colonial-indigenous-america.html): Pre-Colonial and Indigenous America before 1607 — from the first peoples and the mound builders of Cahokia to the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and European contact. - [The Progressive Era & WWI](https://libraryofhistory.org/eras/progressive-era-wwi.html): Explore the Progressive Era and World War I (1900–1920) — from trust-busting and muckraking reform to women's suffrage and America's entry into the Great War. - [Revolution & Independence](https://libraryofhistory.org/eras/revolution-independence.html): Explore the Revolution & Independence era (1765–1789) — from the Stamp Act and Boston Tea Party through the Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War, and the creation of the Constitution. - [The Roaring Twenties & Great Depression](https://libraryofhistory.org/eras/roaring-twenties-great-depression.html): Explore the Roaring Twenties and Great Depression (1920–1939) — from jazz and flappers to the stock market crash, the Dust Bowl, and FDR's transformative New Deal. - [The New Republic (1789–1828)](https://libraryofhistory.org/eras/the-new-republic.html): Explore the New Republic era of American history (1789–1828): Washington's precedents, Hamilton vs. Jefferson, the Louisiana Purchase, the War of 1812, and the Monroe Doctrine. - [Twenty-First Century America](https://libraryofhistory.org/eras/twenty-first-century-america.html): Explore Twenty-First Century America (2001–Present) — from the September 11 attacks and the War on Terror to the Great Recession, a global pandemic, and a nation grappling with deep polarization. - [World War II](https://libraryofhistory.org/eras/world-war-ii.html): Explore the World War II era (1939–1945) — from Pearl Harbor and D-Day to Hiroshima and the birth of the atomic age, the Greatest Generation's defining chapter. ## Articles - ["The Dear Old Flag Never Touched the Ground": The 54th Massachusetts and the Assault on Fort Wagner](https://libraryofhistory.org/articles/54th-massachusetts-fort-wagner-assault-1863.html): On July 18, 1863, the 54th Massachusetts charged Fort Wagner—proving Black soldiers would fight for their freedom, at a cost of blood. - [The Governor and the Rebel: Bacon's Rebellion and the First Crisis of Colonial America](https://libraryofhistory.org/articles/bacons-rebellion-1676-jamestown-virginia.html): In 1676, Nathaniel Bacon burned Jamestown to the ground. The rebellion that started it would reshape Virginia—and accelerate the rise of American slavery. - [The Sky Bridge to Berlin: How the Great Airlift Saved a City and Defined the Cold War](https://libraryofhistory.org/articles/berlin-airlift-1948-cold-war-blockade.html): In 1948, Stalin blockaded West Berlin and expected the West to surrender. Instead, American and British aircrews flew 277,804 sorties to keep 2.2 million people alive — and changed the Cold War. - [The Day the Party Died: Black Tuesday and the Crash That Broke the World](https://libraryofhistory.org/articles/black-tuesday-1929-stock-market-crash-great-depression.html): On October 29, 1929, the New York Stock Exchange collapsed and the Great Depression began. The story of Black Tuesday and the decade of ruin that followed. - [A Bridge Against the Odds: How the Roeblings Built America's Greatest Monument to the Gilded Age](https://libraryofhistory.org/articles/brooklyn-bridge-1883-roebling-gilded-age.html): The Brooklyn Bridge's story is one of tragedy and triumph: an engineer killed before construction began, his son paralyzed by disease, and one remarkable woman who finished it. - [The City the World Forgot: How Cahokia Became the Greatest Metropolis North of Mexico](https://libraryofhistory.org/articles/cahokia-mississippian-city-north-america-1050.html): Before Columbus, before Jamestown, a city of 20,000 rose from the Mississippi floodplain. Cahokia was North America's greatest pre-Columbian metropolis — and history nearly forgot it. - [Cahokia: The Rise and Fall of North America's First Great City](https://libraryofhistory.org/articles/cahokia-rise-fall-north-americas-first-great-city.html): Long before Europeans arrived, Cahokia stood as the largest city north of Mexico — a thriving metropolis of 20,000 that rose from the Mississippi floodplain and vanished into mystery. - [Seventy-Three Seconds: The Space Shuttle Challenger and the Price of American Optimism](https://libraryofhistory.org/articles/challenger-disaster-1986-nasa-orings.html): On January 28, 1986, seventy-three seconds after liftoff, Challenger broke apart. The cause was a failed O-ring — but the real failure had been building for years. - [Roosevelt's Tree Army: How the Civilian Conservation Corps Rebuilt Land, Labor, and Hope](https://libraryofhistory.org/articles/civilian-conservation-corps-roosevelts-tree-army-1933-1942.html): In the depths of the Great Depression, the CCC sent young men into camps to restore forests, send wages home, and reshape the American landscape and federal state. - [Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo: The Doolittle Raid and America's First Strike Against Japan](https://libraryofhistory.org/articles/doolittle-raid-1942-tokyo-bombing.html): On April 18, 1942, sixteen B-25 bombers launched from USS Hornet to strike Japan — a daring mission that lifted a shattered nation and set the Pacific War's turning point in motion. - [The Bureau That Built a Nation: How the Freedmen's Bureau Tried to Remake America After Slavery](https://libraryofhistory.org/articles/freedmens-bureau-reconstruction-1865-1872.html): In 1865, Congress created the Freedmen's Bureau to transform four million freed people into citizens — a bold experiment in social justice that was sabotaged before it could succeed. - ["Fort Frick": The Battle of Homestead and the War for the Soul of American Labor](https://libraryofhistory.org/articles/homestead-strike-1892-carnegie-frick-labor.html): In July 1892, Carnegie's steelworkers and 300 Pinkerton agents fought a 13-hour battle on the Monongahela River—defining Gilded Age labor forever. - [The City That America Forgot: Hurricane Katrina and the Drowning of New Orleans](https://libraryofhistory.org/articles/hurricane-katrina-2005-levee-failure-new-orleans.html): On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina's levee failures drowned 80 percent of New Orleans, exposing the fractures of American society with brutal clarity. - [Fifteen Million Acres of Possibility: How Jefferson's Gamble Doubled a Nation](https://libraryofhistory.org/articles/louisiana-purchase-1803-jefferson-napoleon-westward-expansion.html): In a Paris drawing room on April 30, 1803, two American diplomats signed a treaty that no one had authorized for a price no one had approved — and doubled the size of the United States. - [The Secret Cities and the Fire at Dawn: How the Manhattan Project Built the Atomic Bomb](https://libraryofhistory.org/articles/manhattan-project-trinity-test-1945-secret-city-race-for-atomic-bomb.html): From hidden factory towns to the Trinity test in New Mexico, the Manhattan Project fused science, industry, and wartime urgency into a weapon that transformed history. - [Half a Continent Won: How the Mexican-American War Remade the Map](https://libraryofhistory.org/articles/mexican-american-war-1846-1848-manifest-destiny.html): In 1846, President Polk sent troops to disputed Texas borderland and ignited a war that delivered California, New Mexico, and the entire Southwest to the United States. - [381 Days on Foot: The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Birth of a Movement](https://libraryofhistory.org/articles/montgomery-bus-boycott-1955-civil-rights.html): On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat. What followed was 381 days of organized, nonviolent collective action that broke Jim Crow and changed America. - [The Ditch That Reordered the World: How the Panama Canal Became a Progressive Era Epic](https://libraryofhistory.org/articles/panama-canal-construction-american-century.html): From disease-ridden failure to engineering triumph, the Panama Canal's American construction fused Progressive Era science, state power, and global ambition into one decisive project. - [The Salem Witch Trials: How Fear and Faith Unraveled a Puritan Community](https://libraryofhistory.org/articles/salem-witch-trials-fear-faith-puritan-community.html): In 1692, a small Massachusetts village descended into panic as witchcraft accusations spread, leading to nineteen executions and a permanent scar on the American conscience. - [A Nation Uprooted: The Trail of Tears and the Cherokee Removal](https://libraryofhistory.org/articles/trail-of-tears-cherokee-removal-jacksonian-era.html): The Cherokee won in the Supreme Court, built constitutional government, and still lost everything. The Trail of Tears is the story of American law failing a civilization. - [The Deadliest Afternoon in New York: The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire and the Birth of the Modern Workplace](https://libraryofhistory.org/articles/triangle-shirtwaist-fire-1911-labor-reform.html): On March 25, 1911, 146 workers died in the Triangle Shirtwaist fire—and from that horror came the laws that made the modern American workplace. - [The Winter That Made America: Valley Forge and the Forging of the Continental Army](https://libraryofhistory.org/articles/valley-forge-1777-1778-continental-army-transformation.html): In December 1777, Washington led a broken army to Valley Forge. Six months later, a professional fighting force marched out. This is how the Revolution survived its darkest winter. - [The Crucible of Revolution: How Valley Forge Forged a Nation's Army](https://libraryofhistory.org/articles/valley-forge-crucible-of-revolution.html): In the winter of 1777–78, George Washington's army faced starvation, disease, and political betrayal at Valley Forge—and emerged as the force that won American independence. - [Millions for Defense: How the XYZ Affair Pushed America to the Brink of War](https://libraryofhistory.org/articles/xyz-affair-adams-france-quasi-war.html): In 1797, French agents demanded a bribe before peace talks could begin. The XYZ Affair unleashed war fever, launched the U.S. Navy, and nearly tore the republic apart. ## For AI - [LLM Info](https://libraryofhistory.org/llm-info/): Machine-readable site description and instructions for AI assistants. - [ai.txt](https://libraryofhistory.org/ai.txt): Crawling and usage policy for AI systems.