Though now a largely forgotten holiday in the United States, May Day was founded here in 1886 by an energized labor movement as a part of its struggle for the eight-hour day. In ensuing years, May Day took on new meaning, and by the early 1900s had become an annual rallying point for anarchists, socialists, and communists around the world. Yet American workers and radicals also used May Day to advance alternative definitions of what it meant to be an American and what America should be as a nation. Mining contemporary newspapers, party and union records, oral histories, photographs, and rare film footage, America’s Forgotten Holiday explains how May Days celebrants, through their colorful parades and mass meetings, both contributed to the construction of their own radical American identities and publicized alternative social and political models for the nation. This fascinating story of May Day in America reveals how many contours of American nationalism developed in dialogue with political radicals and workers, and uncovers the cultural history of those who considered themselves both patriotic and dissenting Americans.

Teacher John De Gree has teamed up with New York Time's National Bestseller, Michael Allen, author of A Patriot's History of the United States of America, to bring to Americans the truth behind our federal holidays. Americans have forgotten the meaning behind its federal holidays. In efforts to revise our country's history and to increase our leisure time, our federal holidays have lost their power. We don't appreciate the peaceful passing of power from one party to another that takes place on Inauguration Day. We don't recall who inspired Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We overlook the courage and perseverance of George Washington, the Father of Our Country. Independence Day has become a day of fireworks and feasts, instead of a remembrance of liberty and sacrifices. Memorial Day and Labor Day have become a way to mark the beginning and ending of summer. Christopher Columbus has moved from a place of honor, to dislike, to ignorance in the minds of most. Many schoolchildren falsely believe the first Thanksgiving was held so the Pilgrims could thank the Indians. And Christmas, an official federal holiday, is a word that is not even uttered in public places for fear of offending someone. America's Federal Holidays, The True Story© promotes the heroic people and events that are the reason for America's federal holidays. This book will encourage Americans to appreciate the shared history of our people, understand the meaning behind each day, and strengthen our citizens and our republic. Knowledge and understanding of our history will help students realize the uniqueness of what it means to be an American, and will inspire students to be their best. The American Founding Fathers taught that for a republic to thrive, patriotism would be necessary. In order for citizens to make informed judgments, be inspired to defend their country, and be productive citizens, they should know the decisions earlier Americans made that helped make our country great. Americans should learn what inspired individuals to accomplish challenging tasks. In learning about the great accomplishments of those who came before us, we are inspired to accomplish great tasks, as well. A country with no heroes has no future. America's Federal Holidays, The True Story© provides the teacher and parent with well-written, inspiring histories of our holidays. The religious and faithful history of each day is truthfully taught. It is no coincidence that the United States of America has religion and faith as a cornerstone in its founding and throughout its history. It is a primary reason for the success and duration for the world's first modern republic.Lessons should be read out loud to students in classrooms and to whole families at home. Each lesson has a short essay that describes the most important parts of the holiday. Some lessons include primary source documents. These are followed by 10 text-dependent questions. These questions are designed for ages 8 and older, although there will be some younger children able to answer the questions, and, a few of the questions may be too challenging for some 8 year olds. After the 10 questions, there are a few questions marked “Research and Analysis.” For this, the teacher may assign one or all of the activities for the student to do on his own. These activities are more challenging than the 10 text-dependent questions, and are appropriate for ages 12 and older.

This is what we all learned in school: Pilgrims on the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620. They had a rough start, but ultimately made a go of it, made friends with the Indians, and celebrated with a big Thanksgiving dinner. Other uptight religious Puritans followed them and the whole place became New England. There were some Dutch down in New York, and sooner or later William Penn and the Quakers came to build the City of Brotherly Love in Pennsylvania, and finally it was 1776 and time to revolt against King George III and become America. That's it. That's the narrative of American colonial history known to one and all. Yet there are 150 years - six or seven generations between Plymouth Plantation and the 1770s - that are virtually unknown in our national consciousness and unaccounted for in our American narrative. Who, what, when, where and why people were motivated to make a two-month crossing on the North Atlantic to carve a life in a largely uncharted, inhospitable wilderness? How and why did they build the varied societies that they did here in the New World colonies? How and why did we become America? America's Forgotten Colonial History tells that story.

We all know the story of Thanksgiving. Or do we? This uniquely American holiday has a rich and little known history beyond the famous feast of 1621. In Thanksgiving, award-winning author Melanie Kirkpatrick journeys through four centuries of history, giving us a vivid portrait of our nation's best-loved holiday. Drawing on newspaper accounts, private correspondence, historical documents, and cookbooks, Thanksgiving brings to life the full history of the holiday and what it has meant to generations of Americans. Many famous figures walk these pages—Washington, who proclaimed our first Thanksgiving as a nation amid controversy about his Constitutional power to do so; Lincoln, who wanted to heal a divided nation sick of war when he called for all Americans—North and South—to mark a Thanksgiving Day; FDR, who set off a debate on state's rights when he changed the traditional date of Thanksgiving. Ordinary Americans also play key roles in the Thanksgiving story—the New England Indians who boycott Thanksgiving as a Day of Mourning; Sarah Josepha Hale, the nineteenth-century editor and feminist who successfully campaigned for Thanksgiving to be a national holiday; the 92nd Street Y in New York City, which founded Giving Tuesday, an online charity established in the long tradition of Thanksgiving generosity. Kirkpatrick also examines the history of Thanksgiving football and, of course, Thanksgiving dinner. While the rites and rituals of the holiday have evolved over the centuries, its essence remains the same: family and friends feasting together in a spirit of gratitude to God, neighborliness, and hospitality. Thanksgiving is Americans' oldest tradition. Kirkpatrick's enlightening exploration offers a fascinating look at the meaning of the holiday that we gather together to celebrate on the fourth Thursday of November. With Readings for Thanksgiving Day designed to be read aloud around the table.

From the revered Memorial Day to the forgotten Lasties Day, America's Public Holidays is a timely and thoughtful analysis of how the civic culture of America has been fashioned. By analyzing how holidays became a forum for expressing patriotism, how public tradition has been invented, and how the definition of America itself was changed, Ellen Litwicki tells the intriguing story of the elite effort to create new holidays and the variety of responses from ordinary Americans.