The Bloody Sunday Attack at Pettus Bridge – Who Was Edmund Pettus?

The Bloody Sunday Attack at Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, is a signature event from the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. It proved important enough to feature in a Hollywood movie, Selma, that appeared over the winter of 2014-15. While the Bloody Sunday attack at Pettus Bridge is famous, the person for whom […]

The Mexican-American War Causes – More Important Than You Think? (2)

This post on the Mexican-American War Causes is a continuation of my previous post. Part one (read here) detailed the reasons why the US and Mexico were upset with each other in 1845. Today’s blog describes the events that caused war to break out in 1846, but it won’t make full sense unless you’ve read […]

Causes of the Mexican-American War – More Important Than You Think?

The causes of the Mexican-American War are, surprisingly, still a matter of some debate. Normally, that isn’t true of things that happened 176 years ago. Generally, historians can figure things out after two centuries. But in this case, dispute remains, at least regarding the events immediately preceding the war. And this dispute involves many of […]

The Values of Manifest Destiny, Part 2

In my last post, (click here to read) I laid out the values of Manifest Destiny. Hopefully, I made the case that it was among the most influential doctrines put forward in US history. Today, I’d like to show how the values of Manifest Destiny interacted with some other events in American history. I’ve already […]

The Core Values of Manifest Destiny

I’ve written a bit about Manifest Destiny in previous posts, but today I’d like to write about the core values of Manifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny is a flexible concept, which helps account for its durability over time. This is a brief overview of the idea and the values driving it. The term first appeared in […]