AMERICAN HERITAGE

Featured Articles

Oklahoma City and the Cost of Violence

by Calvin Warner

Thirty years later, an Oklahoma native reflects on one of the deadliest domestic terrorist attacks in American history.

Limits on Presidential Power from FDR to Trump

by Todd Belt

What does history tell us about presidents who have tried to push the limits of the system?

The Comic Revolution

by Bruce Watson

Before Saturday Night Live, there was "Your Show of Shows."

Eisenhower’s “Middle Way”

by Steven Wagner

As president, Dwight D. Eisenhower took a moderate position on many issues, believing that “good judgment seeks balance and progress.”

Solving Our Political Disarray

by Yuval Levin

The Constitution is more than a legal code. It is also a framework for union and solidarity.

Classic Essays from Our Archives

Herbert Hoover Describes the Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson | June 1958, Vol 9, No 4

By Herbert Hoover

The great tragedy of the twenty-eighth President as witnessed by his loyal lieutenant, the thirty-first.

Range Practice | Februrary 1968, Vol 70, No 3

By Dean Acheson

Our former Secretary of State recalls his service fifty years ago in the Connecticut National Guard—asthmatic horses, a ubiquitous major, and a memorable

Searching for “Shenandoah” | Winter 2022, Vol 67, No 1

By Bruce Watson

It's one of the oldest folk ballads in our national songbook, but where did it come from? The answer is complex, multi-layered, American.

FDR and His Women | March 2003, Vol 54, No 1

By Ellen Feldman

A novelist who has just spent several years studying Eleanor Roosevelt, Lucy Rutherfurd, and Missy LeHand tells a moving story of love: public and private, given and withheld.

The Man of the Century | May/June 1994, Vol 45, No 3

By Arthur Schlesinger Jr.

Of all the Allied leaders, argues FDR's biographer, only Roosevelt saw clearly the shape of the new world they were fighting to create.

“Perdicaris Alive or Raisuli Dead” | August 1959, Vol 70, No 3

By Barbara W. Tuchman

John Hay’s ringing phrase helped nominate T. R., but it covered an embarrassing secret that remained concealed for thirty years.

Today in History

Fort Pulaski surrenders

Union cannon bombard Fort Pulaski along the Savannah River, forcing the Confederate garrison to surrender. The loss of Fort Pulaski effectively closed Savannah to Confederate blockade runners and demonstrated the ineffectiveness of masonry forts against modern artillery.
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Truman relieves MacArthur

President Harry S. Truman relieves General Douglas MacArthur from commanding United Nations forces during the Korean War. MacArthur had made several insubordinate comments that had undermined President Truman's foreign policies and sought a widespread expansion of the conflict.
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LBJ signs Civil Rights Act of 1968

President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968 into law, opening housing opportunities to all Americans regardless of race, ethnicity, or creed. Widely considered the Fair Housing Act, the law enforced previous fair housing provisions and ensured federal protection.