American History Essay Contest on August, 2025: Can any of you help me edit my essay? I really want to win this contest?
August, 2025 is American History Essay Contest 2025. American History Essay Contest Chapter Winner Certificate - 1401 ... American History Essay Contest
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To many younger Americans, a "veteran" is most often an elderly or deceased person who fought in a war being discussed in history class. This is incorrect. Veterans are a living, breathing part of our nation's history.
Some of them have fought in battles synonymous with American bravery in World War II, such as Iwo Jima, Normandy, and D-Day. Other American vets fought the Viet Cong, or liberated concentration camps. Some may have even seen some of the most notorious leaders of the last century, including Hitler or Stalin.
Veterans who did not take part in a history-making battle did something to help America achieve a victory. Every veteran is special because of that. That is why veterans are so important to our country.
This summer, I had the privilege of traveling to Washington D.C. with my family. I walked along the long granite Vietnam Wall. I saw the golden stars at the World War II Memorial, each representing a hundred soldiers killed in action. I witnessed the solemn ceremony of the changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknowns. I have seen the gravesites of some of the greatest leaders who ever lived. Visiting Washington D.C. put one thing into perspective. History isn’t just made for a textbook.
(This next paragraph you have is very confusing, and you need to clarify what it is exactly you are talking about. "There are actual people who were there" what does that mean? and what are you referring to? Do you mean at the battles referenced previously, or at the memorials in Washington?)
There are actual people who were there, and have numbers of stories to share about their experiences. These will help us appreciate our past and pass down the stories to future generations.
So, to all of you veterans; I thank you. I appreciate everything you have done for our country and for me personally. Everyone is a hero in one way shape or form, and you should all be treated as such.
To everyone else, I challenge you to talk to a veteran today. Ask him or her about their time in the service, or what it was like during a specific time period. Maybe you will even learn the most important history lesson of all: That history is alive. You can’t possibly learn it all from a book.
Help with history essay question. Discuss the divergence between the North and the South. ?
The Civil War
Historiographical Essay
The Civil War is the defining event in American history. No previous American war came anywhere close to it in scale or in the casualties it caused. Its social and political consequences were vast. It preserved the Union, led to slavery's abolition, and dramatically altered the relationship between the states and the federal government.
But the war has also generated ongoing debates about the conflict's causes and outcome. Among the most bitterly contested issues are why the Southern states seceded and the extent to which it was slavery that motivated secession and why the North did not let the Confederacy peacefully secede. Historians continue to debate how to evaluate military leadership and strategy during the Civil War and the reasons for the North's victory and the South's defeat.
The Causes of the Civil War
At the beginning of his Second Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln looked back to the start of his presidency. "All thoughts," he said, "were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it." "Both parties," he went on, "deprecated war." Nonetheless, "the war came."
Historians continue to debate why the country's tradition of compromise broke down in 1861. Several factors contributed to the outbreak of civil war. One was a growing divergence between the North and South-economically, socially, and ideologically. At the new nation's founding, the two regions were superficially quite similar. Slavery could be found in each of the thirteen states and each region had a predominantly agricultural economy. But except in parts of Rhode Island, New Jersey, and New York's Hudson River Valley, slavery was a marginal institution in the North, and following the Revolution, each Northern state either abolished slavery or adopted a gradual emancipation plan.
A related factor was the South's growing sense of isolation. By 1850, slavery was becoming an exception in the world and the South came to see itself as ringed around by enemies. It grew increasingly defensive as it was attacked as an economic backwater.
Yet another factor was the breakdown of the party system, which had suppressed the slavery issue for more than half a century. During the 1850s, the Whig Party collapsed, the Democratic Party split into Northern and Southern factions, and a new sectional party, the Republic Party, arose which was committed to blocking the westward expansion of slavery. The breakdown of the party system took place for reasons not entirely attributable to slavery. Massive foreign immigration, heated debates over temperance and prohibition, and many divisive local political issues also weakened the political parties. Without the discipline of a strong party system, more outspoken views on slavery and secession began to be heard.
The polarization of political opinion further contributed to the coming of the civil war. The most vivid signs of polarization could be seen in the eruption of violence in the mid-1850s in Kansas and even in the halls of Congress, where South Carolina Representative Preston Brooks attacked Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner with a cane. The Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision aggrevated this situation by ruling that certain possible compromise solutions to the slavery issue, including the doctrine of popular sovereignty were unconstitutional.
But perhaps the deepest factor that contributed to war was the way people perceived and interpreted events. By the 1850s, a growing number of Northerners were convinced that a Southern Slave Power was willing to stop at nothing to expand southern slavery and that it would undercut the civil liberties of Northerners if necessary to achieve that end. Meanwhile, a growing number of white Southerners were convinced that
In the months preceding the attack on Fort Sumter, there were a number of major efforts inside and outside Congress to forge a compromise that would avert war. President-Elect Lincoln was willing to compromise, but not if it required the Republican Party to retreat from its commitment to blocking the expansion of slavery.
Why the North Won
Both the Union and the Confederacy expected a quick victory. Both sides felt that they possessed many advantages. The Confederacy could point to the dependence of foreign economies on Southern cotton; the superior training of Southern generals; the fact that many white Southerners were familiar with horses and firearms; and the fact that South only had to wage a defensive war. The North, in turn, could point to its overwhelming superiority in industrial production and manpower.
Historians have attributed the war's outcome to many factors, including the Lincoln's superior political leadership, internal conflicts within the South (including the Southern emphasis on states' rights), the South's diplomatic failure to secure foreign intervention in the conflict, and the North's superiority in r
Need topics for history essay?
-Invention of flight
-Invention of the automobile
-'Overthrow' of the Russian Czars
-Animals that have went extinct and what the main cause was
-How pollution has increased over time
-Invention on the computer and how it has developed
-Global Warming
-The small ice age in England around the 1850's or so (not sure about the date, it was the reason Frankenstein and Dracula were made (two women were bored out of their minds so they had a contest on who wrote the scariest book))
-How America has developed and caught up to Europe (in economy and industry)
-The Great Depression
-Invention of the light bulb
-Invention of the phone
-Building the Statue of Liberty
-Civil Rights (women, African Americans, etc.)
-The Titanic
-The Civil War
-The assassination of Abraham Lincoln
-The assassination of John F. Kennedy
-The Bessemer Process (steel used to be really expensive to make, and in order to advance the economy and industry countries needed steel (skyscrapers, railroads, etc) and some people figured out how to make steel out of iron)
-Invention of railroad
-How education has improved
-How health care has improved
-How sanitation has improved
-The rise and fall of cowboys (in America)/ the cattle industry
-The invention of the camera
-The invention of the television
-The Cold War
-World War I
-World War II
-The Great Depression
-The Holocaust
-The Victorian Era
-Vietnam War
-Mountain Men/ Fur Industry (This might be late 1700's, I"m not positive)
-Gilded Age
-Reconstruction Ear
-Age of Oil
-Space Travel (also called the Space Age)
-The Eighties (haha)
-Atomic Age
I wouldn't write about something opinionated. Just saying.