The American Story, Chapter by Chapter
Explore by Era
From the earliest indigenous civilizations through the challenges and triumphs of the present day.
Thousands of years of indigenous civilizations, from the mound builders of Cahokia to the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, before European contact reshaped the continent.
Explore → Era 02Jamestown, Plymouth, and the thirteen colonies take root. English, French, and Spanish empires compete while a distinctly American identity begins to form.
Explore → Era 03From the Stamp Act crisis to the Constitutional Convention, a collection of colonies becomes a new nation built on Enlightenment ideals and revolutionary courage.
Explore → Era 04Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and the first generation of leaders test whether a democratic republic can survive. The Louisiana Purchase doubles the nation's size.
Explore → Era 05Manifest Destiny drives the nation westward. Jacksonian democracy expands white male suffrage while Indian removal and the slavery question deepen national fault lines.
Explore → Era 06The nation tears itself apart over slavery, endures the bloodiest war in American history, and begins the unfinished work of rebuilding and securing Black freedom.
Explore → Era 07Railroads, steel, and oil barons transform the economy. Massive immigration reshapes American society while labor unrest and inequality define the era's contradictions.
Explore → Era 08Reformers tackle corruption, women win the vote, and America reluctantly enters a devastating global war that reshapes its role on the world stage.
Explore → Era 09Jazz, flappers, and unprecedented prosperity give way to economic catastrophe. The New Deal reimagines the federal government's role in American life.
Explore → Era 10From Pearl Harbor to the atomic bomb, America mobilizes its entire society to fight fascism on two fronts and emerges as the world's preeminent superpower.
Explore → Era 11Suburban expansion, the baby boom, and postwar prosperity unfold against the backdrop of nuclear anxiety and ideological confrontation with the Soviet Union.
Explore → Era 12The long struggle for racial equality reaches a crescendo. From Montgomery to Selma, landmark legislation dismantles legal segregation while Vietnam divides the nation.
Explore → Era 13Watergate's aftermath, the Reagan revolution, the end of the Cold War, and the dawn of the digital age transform American politics, culture, and the global order.
Explore → Era 14September 11th, the Great Recession, social media, and deepening political polarization define a century still in the making.
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In-depth narrative articles covering the people, events, and turning points that shaped the nation.
In 1933, the CCC sent unemployed young men into camps to restore forests, send wages home, and help redefine the federal government's role in national recovery.
From disease-ridden failure to engineering triumph, the Panama Canal fused Progressive Era science, state power, and global ambition into one decisive project.
The Brooklyn Bridge's story is one of tragedy and triumph: a founder killed before construction began, his son paralyzed underground, and one remarkable woman who taught herself engineering to finish it.
In 1865, Congress created an unprecedented federal agency to transform four million freed people into citizens. The Freedmen's Bureau built 1,000 schools and helped found HBCUs — before being dismantled by presidential hostility and political fatigue.
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.