The Pocahontas Archive

Did she, or didn't she? Save John Smith, that is. Use the extensive list of materials here to explore this and many other questions about the representation of the saintly but shadowy Indian Princess whose presence hallows our Capitol rotunda.

The Literature of Justification

What right had the first "discoverers" of America to make war on and take land from the Native Americans? Case studies of European justification strategies in the various contact zones and our own Supreme Court decisions regarding Indian land rights.

Reel American History

Film writes history with lightning. So how are we being shaped by history at the movies? Compare the "reel" with the "real" through detailed case studies from the extensive syllabus of films about American history.

The Enola Gay Controversy

How do we remember a war that we won? Was the atomic bomb – our knock-out punch – a beneficent end or an ominous beginning? Decide for yourself as you follow the National Air and Space Museum's plan to exhibit the plane that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima.

The Vietnam Wall Controversy

How do we remember a war that we "lost"? Can we understand the emotions that caused Maya Lin's serene "rift in the earth" to be denounced as a "black gash of shame and sorrow"? Relive the multi-leveled controversy over the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

The Jefferson - Hemings Controversy

History matters. Did the Founding Father who wrote "all men are created equal" have sexual relations with that slave woman, Miss Hemings? The answer isn't clearly black or white. Join us for all sixteen episodes of the longest-running miniseries in American history.