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

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.

“The Tide is Setting Strongly Against Us” | Winter 2010, Vol 59, No 4

By Edward L. Ayers

Lincoln’s bid for reelection in 1864 faced serious challenges from a popular opponent and a nation weary of war.

“Perdicaris Alive or Raisuli Dead” | August 1959, Vol 70, No 2

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.

On History | February 1964, Vol 15, No 2

By John F. Kennedy

"Americans are united by their history and by a faith in progress, justice, and freedom," writes President Kennedy

America: Experiment or Destiny? | June 1977, Vol 28, No 4

By Arthur Schlesinger Jr.

We can take pride in our nation, not as we pretend to a commission from God and a sacred destiny, but as we struggle to fulfill our deepest values in an inscrutable world.

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.

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.
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