American History Paper Topics

United States Timeline of the 1700s, 1800s, and 1900s

© Naomi Rockler-Gladen

Jun 18, 2007

So you need a topic for an American history paper, and you're stumped. How do you choose a topic that's interesting, original, and easy to write about?

Well, first, think beyond the "big" topics-- The American Revolution, The Civil War, The Great Depression, World War II, etc. To say the least, these topics have been written about extensively, so if you're going to write about one of these major events, take a unique angle. Or better yet, delve into American history and you'll discover an abundance of interesting events. For example, did you know that there was a major earthquake in Missouri in 1812?

Here's a list of possible American history topics to get you started:

18th century American history topics:

• Benjamin Franklin and the invention of the lightening conductor
• The Stamp Act
• The Boston Massacre
• Thomas Paine and Common Sense
• The Boston Tea Party
• The signing of the Declaration of Independence
• The Revolutionary War
• Washington's retreat to Valley Forge
• The Declaration of Paris
• The creation of the Bill of Rights and U.S. Constitution
• Thomas Jefferson's long term relationship with his slave, Sally Hemming
• The publication of the Old Farmers Almanac

19th century American history topics:

• The Louisiana Purchase
• The duel of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr
• The journey of Lewis & Clark
• The New Madrid earthquake
• War of 1812
• The Panic of 1819
• The Missouri Compromise
• The Trail of Tears
• The Monroe Doctrine
• The building of the Erie Canal
• The Nullification Crisis
• The Indian Removal Act
• The Black Hawk and Seminole Wars
• The death of William Henry Harrison
• The Alamo and the Texas Revolution
• The Gag Rule
• The Kansas-Nebraska Act
• The Dred Scott Decision
• The Mexican-American War
• The Lincoln-Douglas debates
• John Brown's raid
• Formation of the Confederacy
• The Civil War
• The Homestead Act
• The assassination of Abraham Lincoln
• Reconstruction
• The Nez Perce War
• The assassination of James Garfield
• The Dawes Act
• Wounded Knee Massacre
• The Spanish American-War

20th and 21st century American history topics:

• The Boxer Rebellion
• The assassination of William McKinley
• The Panama Canal
• The San Francisco Earthquake
• The Ford Model T
• Women's suffrage
• World War I
• Woodrow Wilson and the signing of the Fourteen Points
• The Red Scare
• Sacco and Vanzetti
• Prohibition
• The Great Depression
• FDR and the New Deal
• The War of the Worlds broadcast
• World War II
• The Japanese internment camps
• The founding of the United Nations
• The nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• The Cold War
• The Korean War
• Richard Nixon's Checkers speech
• McCarthyism
• The assassination of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
• The quiz show scandal
• The Berlin Wall
• The Kennedy-Nixon debate
• The Cuban Missile Crisis
• The Montgomery bus boycott
• The Woolworth sit-ins
• The Civil Rights Movement
• The assassination of JFK
• Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty
• The Vietnam War
• Vietnam War protests and the student movements of the 1960s
• The assassination of Dr, Martin Luther King, Jr.
• The space race and the moon landing
• The Kent State shootings
• The Women's Liberation Movement
• Richard Nixon's trip to China
• Watergate
• Gerald Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon
• The OPEC gas crisis of the 1970s
• The Iranian hostage crisis
• The assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan's life
• Ronald Reagan's invasion of Grenada
• Ronald Reagan's "War on Drugs"
• Ronald Reagan's "Tear Down this Wall" speech
• The Challenger explosion
• Oliver North and the Iran-Contra scandal
• Mikhail Gorbachev, glasnost, and peace treaties with the Soviet Union
• The invasion of Panama
• The 1991 Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm)
• Rodney King and the Los Angeles Riots
• The O.J. Simpson trial
• The Oklahoma City bombing
• Bill Clinton and the Monica Lewinsky scandal
• The controversy over the 2000 presidential election results
• The attacks of September 11th
• The War on Terror
• The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
• Hurricane Katrina
• The Virginia Tech massacre

See also: Persuasive speech and essay topics

The American flag.

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