On April 18th, 1906, an earthquake nearly destroys San Francisco’s Little Italy. This 8-minute clip explores the story of Italian-Americans rebuilding their community with the help of Amadeo Giannini’s Bank of Italy, a resource they’d long been denied by American banks. Educators might use the film to explore the resilience of immigrant communities in the face […]
BackStory is a weekly podcast that explores the history behind current events in the United States of America. The show is hosted by noted U.S. historians, Joanne Freeman, Ed Ayers, Peter Onuf, Brian Balogh, and Nathan Connolly. In the summer of July 2018, the entire episode explored what it means to assimilate and what is […]
Below is an excerpt from President Roosevelt’s remarks on the 50th anniversary of the Statue of Libery, October 28, 1936 Four hundred years ago, in Europe as well as in Asia, there was little hope of liberty for the average men of courage and goodwill. The ambitions of a ruling class and the times alike […]
For years Detroit, Michigan had come to symbolize urban decay, a formally great city that had fallen upon hard times. Once the thriving center of the automobile industry, Detroit, has lost much of its population. One way that the city hopes to recover is through the energy and entrepreneurial efforts of immigrants. A recent PRI Global […]
Set amidst the ongoing Refugee crisis in Europe, 4.1 Miles follows Kyriakos Papadopoulos, a captain in the Greek coast guard, who works to save migrants, fleeing from their homes, from drowning at sea. This film was nominated for the 2017 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject. Reflection Questions How do you explain the choices […]