EXPLORE BY THEME
Wars & Conflict
Wars, battles and military decisions that tested American power, identity and the limits of national ambition.
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Wars & Conflict↗
How Franz Ferdinand’s Assassination Led to the July Crisis and World War I
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Wars & Conflict↗
Who Started World War II?
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Wars & Conflict↗
Why America Entered World War I in 1917
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Wars & Conflict↗
Why Did the United States Invade Iraq in 2003?
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Wars & Conflict↗
Why Did the Korean War Begin?
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Wars & Conflict↗
The Cuban Missile Crisis: 13 Days Near Nuclear War
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Wars & Conflict↗
Alan Turing, Codebreaking, and the Machines That Helped Win World War II
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Wars & Conflict↗
The Korean War and America's Cold War Strategy
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Wars & Conflict↗
How GPS Went From Military Technology to Everyday Life
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Wars & Conflict↗
What Finally Brought America Into World War II?
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Wars & Conflict↗
Chernobyl: The Nuclear Disaster That Shocked the Cold War World
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Wars & Conflict↗
D-Day: The Invasion That Changed World War II
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Wars & Conflict↗
NATO: Why the United States Joined a Permanent Military Alliance
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Wars & Conflict↗
Lyndon Johnson and America's Escalation in Vietnam
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Wars & Conflict↗
How America's Arsenal of Democracy Helped Win World War II
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Wars & Conflict↗
The Battle of Midway: How America Turned the Pacific War
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Wars & Conflict↗
Operation Desert Storm: Why the United States Went to War With Iraq in 1991
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Wars & Conflict↗
Ronald Reagan and the Final Years of the Cold War
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Wars & Conflict↗
Why Did the United States Enter the Vietnam War?
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Wars & Conflict↗
The Zimmermann Telegram: The Message That Helped Push America Into World War I
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Wars & Conflict↗
Dwight Eisenhower and the Warning About the Military-Industrial Complex
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Wars & Conflict↗
Who Really Started World War I?
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Wars & Conflict↗
How World War II Changed Life for American Women
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Wars & Conflict↗
Ich bin ein Berliner: Kennedy in Cold War Berlin
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Wars & Conflict↗
Why Did Japan Attack Pearl Harbor?
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Wars & Conflict↗
Franklin D. Roosevelt and America's Road Into World War II
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Wars & Conflict↗
The Lend-Lease Program: How America Armed the Allies Before Entering World War II
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Wars & Conflict↗
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the Escalation of Vietnam
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America at War↗
Lexington and Concord: How the Fighting Began
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America at War↗
Washington Crosses the Delaware: A Risky Christmas Offensive
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America at War↗
Valley Forge: How an Army Survived the Winter
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America at War↗
Saratoga: The Victory That Helped Bring France into the War
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America at War↗
Yorktown: How a British Army Became Trapped
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America at War↗
Benedict Arnold: How a Patriot Became a Traitor
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America at War↗
The Culper Spy Ring: Washington’s Secret Intelligence Network
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America at War↗
Women Who Kept the American Revolution Running
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America at War↗
Black Soldiers and the Fight for American Independence
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America at War↗
When British Troops Burned Washington in 1814
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Civil War & Reconstruction↗
The Missouri Compromise and the Battle over Slavery’s Expansion
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Civil War & Reconstruction↗
The Fugitive Slave Act and the Risks of Seeking Freedom
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Civil War & Reconstruction↗
Harriet Tubman’s Missions on the Underground Railroad
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Civil War & Reconstruction↗
Frederick Douglass: From Enslavement to National Influence
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Civil War & Reconstruction↗
How Uncle Tom’s Cabin Entered the Slavery Debate
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Civil War & Reconstruction↗
Bleeding Kansas: Violence Before the Civil War
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Civil War & Reconstruction↗
Dred Scott: The Supreme Court Decision That Deepened the Divide
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Civil War & Reconstruction↗
John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry
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Civil War & Reconstruction↗
Fort Sumter: The Opening Shots of the Civil War
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Civil War & Reconstruction↗
Why the Battle of Bull Run Shocked the North
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Civil War & Reconstruction↗
Antietam: America’s Bloodiest Day of Battle
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Civil War & Reconstruction↗
What the Emancipation Proclamation Did—and Did Not Do
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Civil War & Reconstruction↗
Gettysburg: Why Pickett’s Charge Failed
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Civil War & Reconstruction↗
Vicksburg: The Siege That Opened the Mississippi
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Civil War & Reconstruction↗
The 54th Massachusetts and the Assault on Fort Wagner
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Civil War & Reconstruction↗
Sherman’s March to the Sea: War Beyond the Battlefield
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Civil War & Reconstruction↗
Appomattox: What Lee’s Surrender Meant
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Civil War & Reconstruction↗
Lincoln’s Assassination: The Events at Ford’s Theatre
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Civil War & Reconstruction↗
Juneteenth: Why June 19 Became a Day of Freedom
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Civil War & Reconstruction↗
The Freedmen’s Bureau and the Unfinished Work of Reconstruction
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America at War↗
The Mexican-American War and the Redrawing of the Map
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America at War↗
The Harlem Hellfighters and the Fight for Recognition
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