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

A Few Parchment Pages Two Hundred Years Later | May/June 1987, Vol 70, No 2

By Richard B. Morris

The framers of the Constitution were proud of what they had done but might be astonished that their words still carry so much weight. A distinguished scholar tells us how the great charter has survived and flourished.

A Few Parchment Pages Two Hundred Years Later | May/June 1987, Vol 38, No 4

By Richard B. Morris

Range Practice | Februrary 1968, Vol 19, No 2

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

Two Intimate Enemies | September 2000, Vol 70, No 2

By Joseph J. Ellis

When John Adams was elected president, and Thomas Jefferson as vice president, each came to see the other as a traitor. Out of their enmity grew our modern political system.

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.

Two Intimate Enemies | September 2000, Vol 51, No 5

By Joseph J. Ellis

When John Adams was elected president, and Thomas Jefferson as vice president, each came to see the other as a traitor. Out of their enmity grew our modern political system.

Today in History

MLK shot in Memphis

Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee by James Earl Ray. Ray would be captured at London's Heathrow Airport a few months later, convicted of the murder, and charged with a 99 year sentence.
NATO established

Twelve North American and European states sign the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington, D.C., formally establishing NATO. In Article 5, the treaty calls for the mutual defense policy whereby an attack on any NATO ally would signify an attack on the entire alliance.
More »