Select a Period
Major periods in American history
Each era gathers the people, events and turning points that shaped the United States.
Explorers
The voyages of discovery that first brought Europe to the Americas.
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The Colonies
The founding and growth of the thirteen colonies along the Atlantic seaboard.
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The Revolution
The break with Britain and the birth of a new nation.
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A New Nation
Forging a government — the Constitution and the early republic.
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Antebellum
Expansion, reform and the gathering storm before the Civil War.
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The Civil War
The war that decided the fate of the Union and ended slavery.
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Reconstruction & Industrialization
Rebuilding the South and the rise of industrial America.
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America on the World Stage
The Spanish-American War and America's emergence as a world power.
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The Twenties
Prosperity, prohibition and the Jazz Age of the Roaring Twenties.
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The Depression
The Great Depression and the New Deal that answered it.
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World War II
America's part in the global war, from Pearl Harbor to victory.
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The Postwar Era
Prosperity, the Cold War and the dawn of the atomic age.
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The Sixties
Civil rights, Vietnam and a decade of upheaval and change.
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1975 – 2000
From the end of Vietnam to the turn of the millennium.
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2001 – 2020
The 21st century so far — 9/11, new wars and a changing America.
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