AMERICAN HERITAGE

Featured Articles

Friends of American Heritage gathered to celebrate 75 years of great writing and education about our nation's history.

The Shots Heard Round the World

by John Ferling

What began as a civil war within the British Empire continued until it became a wider conflict affecting peoples and countries across Europe and North America.

The Forgotten Battle of Menotomy

by Michael Ruderman

Overshadowed in memory by Lexington and Concord, the Massachusetts town of Menotomy saw the most violent and deadly fighting on April 19, 1775.

Introduction: Revisiting Concord and Lexington

by Edwin S. Grosvenor

This special issue looks at the dramatic and momentous events that occurred 250 years ago this month.

Drama at the Old North Bridge

by Rick Atkinson

“Now the war has begun and no one knows when it will end,” said one minuteman after the fight.

Classic Essays from Our Archives

The Slave Who Sued for Freedom | March 1990, Vol 41, No 2

By Jon Swan

While the American Revolution was still being fought, Mum Bett declared that the new nation’s principle of liberty must extend to her, too. It took 80 years and a far-more-terrible war to confirm the rights that she had demanded.

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

“Perdicaris Alive or Raisuli Dead” | August 1959, Summer 2025, Vol 10, No 5

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.

"I Had Prayed to God That This Thing Was Fiction…" | February 1990, Vol 41, No 1

By William Wilson

He didn’t want the job, but felt he should do it. For the first time, the soldier who tracked down the My Lai story for the office of the inspector general in 1969 tells what it was like to do some of this era’s grimmest detective work.

1619: The Year That Shaped America | Winter 2019, Vol 64, No 1

By James Horn

Four hundred years ago this year, two momentous events happened in Britain’s fledgling colony in Virginia: the New World’s first democratic assembly convened, and an English privateer brought kidnapped Africans to sell as slaves. Such were the conflicted origins of modern America.

Did Castro Okay the Kennedy Assassination? | Winter 2009, Vol 58, No 6

By Gus Russo

Incriminating new evidence has come to light in KGB files and the authors' interviews of former Cuban intelligence officers which indicates that Fidel Castro probably knew in advance of Oswald's intent to kill JFK.

Today in History

Theodore Dreiser born

American author Theodore Dreiser was born in Terre Haute, Indiana.
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LBJ born

36th President Lyndon B. Johnson was born on a small farm outside of Stonewall, Texas. Johnson was first elected to Congress in 1937 and continued to serve during World War II, when he became a Naval officer in the Pacific Theater. His "Great Society" programs and embrace of the Civil Rights Movement somewhat overshadow his unrealistic pursuit of victory in Vietnam
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Japan's PM requests meeting with FDR

Japan's Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe requests a meeting with President Franklin Roosevelt to diminish rising tensions between the two countries; he would resign in October and was succeeded by the more militaristic General Hideki Tojo.
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Battle of Long Island

A formidable British army commanded by General William Howe defeats General George Washington at the Battle of Long Island, also known as the Battle of Brooklyn. In the largest battle in North American history American soldiers could not hold their defensive lines, but slyly escaped Brooklyn, avoiding total defeat.
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