Welcome!
Welcome to the website for Critical Moments in American History!
Critical Moments in American History is a series of short, supplemental texts designed to familiarize students with events or issues critical to the American experience. Through the use of narrative and primary documents, these books help instructors deconstruct an important moment in American history with the help of timelines, glossaries, text-boxes, and a robust companion website.
From this page you can link to any of the books in the series.
The Assassination of John F. Kennedy
On November 22, 1963 the assassination of President John F. Kennedy set into motion a series of events that irrevocably changed American politics and culture. The media frenzy spawned by the controversy surrounding the death of JFK has since given way to a powerful public memory that continues to shape the way we understand politics, the 1960s, and the nation.
The Battle of the Greasy Grass/Little Bighorn
In June of 1876, the U.S. government’s plan to pressure the Lakota and Cheyenne people onto reservations came to a dramatic and violent end with a battle that would become enshrined in American memory. In the eyes of many Americans at the time, the battle of Little Bighorn represented a symbolic struggle between the civil and the savage. Known as the Battle of the Greasy Grass to the Lakota, the Battle of Little Bighorn to the people who suppressed them, and as Custer’s Last Stand in the annals of popular culture, the event continues to captivate students of American history.
The Battles of Kings Mountain and Cowpens
The American South is so identified with the Civil War that people often forget that the key battles from the final years of the American Revolution were fought in Southern states. The Southern backcountry was the center of the fight for independence, but backcountry devotion to the Patriot cause was slow in coming. Decades of animosity between coastal elites and backcountry settlers who did not enjoy accurate representation in the assemblies meant a complex political and social milieu throughout this turbulent time.
Freedom to Serve
On the eve of America’s entry into World War II, African American leaders pushed for inclusion of more black soldiers in the war effort and, after the war, mounted a concerted effort to integrate the armed services. President Harry S. Truman’s decision to issue Executive Order 9981 in 1948, which resulted in the integration of the armed forces, was an important event in twentieth-century American history, and was an early victory on the road to black civil rights.