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The Industrial Era
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing process in the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840. This era was nicknamed "Revolution" for it thoroughly destroyed the manner of doing things. -
The Imperialism Era
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the United States pursued an aggressive policy of expansionism, extending its political and economic influence around the globe. -
The Progressive Era
The Progressive Era was composed of many different movements, some of which did not agree with each other. There was no galvanizing issue that all progressives rallied around. Additionally, the movement included people from all political parties. With the exception of the election of 1912 (and briefly in 1924), there was no Progressive Party. Theodore Roosevelt was a progressive Republican, Woodrow Wilson was a progressive Democrat, and William Jennings Bryan was a progressive Democrat. -
The Roaring Twenties
When people think about the 1920s, images of Prohibition era speakeasies often come to mind, populated with flappers, gangsters and bootleggers -- but this romanticized image fails to account for the massive social and cultural changes the decade brought to America. The "Roaring Twenties" ushered in the birth of a modern national lifestyle, as war-weary Americans came to value convenience and leisure over hard work and self-denial. -
The Great Depression
The Great Depression and the New Deal changed forever the relationship between Americans and their government. Government involvement and responsibility in caring for the needy and regulating the economy came to be expected. -
World War II
The Second World War was history's largest and most significant armed conflict. It served as the breeding ground for the modern structure of security and intelligence, and for the postwar balance of power that formed the framework for the Cold War. Weapons, materiel, and actual combat, though vital to the Allies' victory over the Axis, did not alone win the war. -
The Cold War
Soldiers of the Soviet Union and the United States did not do battle directly during the Cold War. But the two superpowers continually antagonized each other through political maneuvering, military coalitions, espionage, propaganda, arms buildups, economic aid, and proxy wars between other nations. -
The Fifties
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Vietnam
protracted conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam and its allies in South Vietnam, known as the Viet Cong, against the government of South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. Called the “American War” in Vietnam (or, in full, the “War Against the Americans to Save the Nation”),the war was also part of a larger regional conflict (see Indochina wars) and a manifestation of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies -
Civil Rights Era
The post-war era marked a period of unprecedented energy against the second class citizenship accorded to African Americans in many parts of the nation. Resistance to racial segregation and discrimination with strategies such as civil disobedience, nonviolent resistance, marches, protests, boycotts, "freedom rides," and rallies received national attention as newspaper, radio, and television reporters and cameramen documented the struggle to end racial inequality.