The December Milestone Documents Newsletter
Today we’ve published our December issue of the Milestone Documents newsletter. It focuses on the period between 1870 and about 1900, which the National History Standards refer to as “Era 6: The Development of the Industrial United States.” Indeed, the period contains several critical legislative acts related to the rise of big business (and the downside thereof), including the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Interstate Commerce Act. But this era also includes some documents that don’t, shall we say, reflect the best of American ideals and spirit: the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Dawes Severalty Act come to mind. These are a good reminder to students that American history is not an unbroken string of national progress and civic rectitude; our failures as a country are reflected in our documents just as our triumphs are.
This newsletter also features our first-ever survey. It asks readers to vote on which inaugural address was the most influential in American history (think Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Kennedy). The survey is open to the general public, so even if you’re not a newsletter subscriber, you can take the survey by clicking on this link. I’ll post the results in January.