This text comes from our book, The American Venture . The 1950s was a time when European colonies in Africa and Asia were loosening themselves from their European masters to form their own independent states. While in some places this was done peacefully, insurgent violence beset other regions—such as French Indochina in East Asia, where, in 1954, Communist Vietnamese rebels defeated French forces at Dien Bien Phu. Winning its independence, Vietnam was divided into two states

This text comes from our book, Lands of Hope and Promise . It took over 400 vessels to ferry the immense Army of the Potomac, 121,500 strong, from its base near Washington to Fort Monroe. McClellan’s army reached Fort Monroe in mid-March and began its slow advance up the York Peninsula. On April 5, McClellan’s advanced guard reached Yorktown where, some 80 years earlier, Cornwallis had surrendered to Washington. Joe Johnston’s Confederates lay between the Army of the Potomac

This text comes from our book, Lands of Hope and Promise . The American army and navy in the Pacific were making steady advances against the Japanese while German resistance crumbled in Europe. From the island of Saipan, American bombing raids pounded Japanese cities to dust, progressively destroying Japan’s industrial capability to make war, as well as killing tens of thousands of Japanese civilians—men, women and children. The U.S. firebombing of Tokyo laid waste to 56 squa

This text comes from our book, Light to the Nations, Part II . On a summer’s day in August 1819, tens of thousands of people gathered in St. Peter’s Fields, near Manchester, in Lancashire County, England. They had come, summoned by radical leaders, to hear the reformer Henry Hunt give a speech on the causes he stood for—yearly elections for members of Parliament, universal manhood suffrage, and voting by secret ballot. Great throngs of people had begun to arrive a little befo

In a city in Holland called Leyden lived a colony of Englishmen. These English men and women had come to live in Holland for only one reason: they wanted the freedom to practice their religion without interference from the government or anyone else.

This text comes from our book, The American Venture . Such swift work was thought necessary, especially because, since the election in November, the federal government had done nothing about the depression. For three months, Hoover initiated no new policies, though he tried to get Roosevelt to endorse measures which made the New Deal much more like the old deal that had lost Hoover the election. With government doing nothing, panicky investors withdrew their savings from bank

This text comes from our book, The American Venture . Theodore Roosevelt was a man of strong passions and commitments—to justice, for instance, and American glory and power. Yet, Roosevelt shared with other progressives of his time another passion—the conservation of regions of great natural beauty and utility. At the turn of the century, ranchers and timber companies were looting federal public lands, particularly in the West, of their rich harvest of wood. Roosevelt believe

This text comes from our book, The American Venture . Since resuming control of La Florida following the American Revolution, Spain had done little with the territory. Long gone were the days of the Florida missions, and far removed was the era of Spain’s glory and power. Revolutionaries in Mexico and South America were challenging Spain’s hold on the very lands that she had conquered over 300 years before. In Florida itself, Spanish power was especially weak, barely extendin

This text comes from our book, The American Venture . The cause of the Cuban rebels was generally popular in the United States, and some Americans favored U.S. intervention in their favor. The publishers William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, though running rival newspapers, were united in promoting American entrance into the Cuban war. Despite President McKinley’s own reservations, his cabinet members divided over the question of war, with the assistant secretary of th

Michael Van Hecke, founder and president of Catholic Textbook Project, joined Tammy Peterson on her podcast to discuss how modern education has lost its sense of history, meaning, and moral orientation. He examines the drift from teaching history as a coherent account of the past to disconnected information and how that shift leaves students without a stable framework for interpreting the world. Michael explains how removing Christianity from the teaching of Western civilizat

This text comes from our book, All Ye Lands . When Tsar Alexis’s son, Peter, was crowned tsar in 1696 at the young age of 24, he was determined to change the course of Russian history forever. He wanted to make Russia a truly great power, and to do this he thought he had to make Russia like the countries of western Europe. Even before becoming tsar, he had set about to learn everything he could about the West. After he became tsar, he disguised himself as a simple sailor and

This text comes from our book, From Sea to Shining Sea . Though the colonies had won their independence from Great Britain, all was not well in America. This was especially true for farmers, who had done quite well for themselves throughout the war selling crops to the Continental army. When the war ended, these farmers could not make as much money, since there was no longer an army to feed. So it was that many farmers could not pay back money they owed, nor could they pay th

This text comes from our book, The American Venture . It was under Eisenhower that the cease-fire that ended the Korean War was signed. Yet, though the United States engaged in no other wars in the Eisenhower years, the administration conducted covert operations in other countries. The chief instrument in these operations was the Central Intelligence Agency, or CIA. Though no war was declared, nor UN police action approved, the United States through the CIA helped topple and

This text comes from our book, From Sea to Shining Sea . The United States was not very well prepared to go to war with Great Britain. The British had a much larger army and the largest and most powerful navy in the world. Fortunately for the Americans, the British could not send many troops to America, since most of them were fighting Napoleon’s armies in Europe. Even so, in the early part of the war, the Americans lost most of their battles against the British. Battle betwe

This text comes from our book, The American Venture . Balboa’s discovery of the Pacific Ocean and, later, Elcano’s circumnavigation of the world had shown that the lands of America were not the outposts of Asia but a New World. Yet, though this New World offered its own tempting riches, European rulers still hoped to reach Asia. Though the continents of North and South America seemed to lie between the rulers and their dream, some Europeans hoped to find a passage or strait t

This text comes from our book, The American Venture . The Pope’s Peace Efforts When the Great War broke out in 1914, Pius X had been the reigning pope for over a decade. Rejecting the decision for war, Pius died, calling on the powers to abandon their “murderous struggle” and seek peace. The war was only a month old when Pius’ successor, Pope Benedict XV, took up the call for peace. On the Feast of All Souls, November 1, 1914, Benedict issued Ad Beatissimi , an encyclical let

This text comes from our book, Hope for the Ages . Though they had done it for previous emperors, the Senate refused to proclaim Hadrian a god following his death in 138. So, as one of his first acts as emperor, Antoninus persuaded the senators to deify his stepfather—an act of devotion and piety for which he received the title Pius , meaning “affectionately dutiful.” Antoninus Pius’ reign of some 23 years was a period when the Pax Romana  was most perfectly realized. Unlike

This text comes from our book, Hope for the Ages . In the region north and east of Gaul, along the Rhine and Main rivers and northward to the sea, lived a Germanic people called the Franks. For centuries, they had dwelt along the Rhine in three distinct groups: the Salian (who lived near the sea), the Ripuarian (who dwelt inland along the Rhine), and the Chatti. The Franks had not been part of the great invasions of the empire, though in the mid fourth century they had moved

This text comes from our book, Light to the Nations, Part II . In commenting on France’s June rebellion, the Duke of Wellington mused, “France needs a Napoleon! I cannot yet see him. . . . Where is he?” Louis-Napoleon Wellington no doubt knew of the Napoleon who had for two years been a sojourner in London. Wellington probably even knew of this man’s ambition. This Napoleon was Prince Charles Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, nephew of the great Emperor Napoleon I. And he was ambitio

This text comes from our book, Light to the Nations, Part I . Martin Luther did not intend to destroy the Catholic Church, nor did he intend to start a separate church. Luther wanted to reform the Church, to bring it back to what it was meant to be—the pure Bride of Christ. Luther was not alone in wanting to reform the Church. Catholic humanists like Desiderius Erasmus of Holland, Thomas More of England, and the Cardinal Francisco Jiménez of Castile protested as loudly as Lut