USA

Mark Juddery looks at the historical backdrop to the much-loved 1950s Hollywood musical, Singin’ in the Rain in which Hollywood tells its own story of the arrival of sound to the big screen.

Dan Plesch describes how President Roosevelt’s introduction of a global day of solidarity in June 1942 successfully promoted the ideals of the United Nations and his Four Freedoms, boosting morale in the worldwide fight against fascism.

The American Civil War transformed the nature of conflict. Its opening salvos harked back to Waterloo; its end anticipated the industrial warfare of the 20th century, writes David White.

John A. Kirk recalls the dramatic events at Little Rock, Arkansas, when a stand-off over the granting of black students access to integrated education brought the civil rights agenda to international attention.

Opera has flourished in the United States. But how did this supposedly ‘elite’ art form become so deep-rooted in a nation devoted to popular culture and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal? Daniel Snowman explains.

A distant monarch, political factionalism, vainglorious commanders and the distraction of European enemies helped George Washington seal victory in the American War of Independence, writes Kenneth Baker, who explores the conflict through caricature and print.

John Spiller surveys race relations in the United States during Reconstruction and constructs a balance sheet.

The careers of the three Kennedy brothers defined the politics of America in the 1960s, a decade that began amid vigour and optimism and ended in scandal and cynicism. Yet still they fascinate, writes Tim Stanley.

Richard Cavendish recalls the slave liberation movement in 19th-century Kansas.

Andrew Boxer traces the assimilation policies, indigenous rights, and the changing relationship between the US government and Native Americans.