AMERICAN HERITAGE

Featured Articles

Recent rehabilitation of this important site at the Gettysburg battlefield provides a much improved experience for visitors.

John Dickinson: Forgotten Founder

by Jane E. Calvert

Dickinson played a pivotal role in our Nation’s founding, from the Stamp Act to ratifying the Constitution, but his contributions are largely forgotten by history.

“Shall We Have a King?”

by William E. Leuchtenburg

Some delegates at the Constitutional Convention wanted a strong executive, while others feared the American president might become a king.

Important Early Maps of America

by Edwin S. Grosvenor

In the Age of Discovery, maps held closely guarded secrets for the kings, adventurers, and merchants who first acquired them.

Still “Crazy” for Patsy Cline

by Holley Snaith

Since her untimely death in 1963, the legendary country music star—and the first female to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame—continues to inspire new audiences and artists.

Classic Essays from Our Archives

The Conversion of Harry Truman | November 1991, Vol 42, No 7

By William E. Leuchtenburg

A child of the South's "Lost Cause," Truman broke with his convictions to make civil rights a concern of the national government for the first time since Reconstruction. In so doing, he changed the nation forever.

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.

"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.

How My Father and President Kennedy Saved The World | October 2002, Vol 53, No 5

By Sergei Khrushchev

The Cuban Missile Crisis as seen from the Kremlin

Growing Up Colored | Summer 2012, Summer 2025, Vol 62, No 2

By Henry Louis Gates Jr.

The noted writer and educator tells of his boyhood in the West Virginia town of Piedmont, where African Americans were second-class citizens, but family pride ran deep.

“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.

Today in History

DC residents vote for the first time

Resident of Washington D.C. vote for the first time in a presidential election, three years after the ratification of the 23rd Amendment. Incumbent President Lyndon Johnson would defeat Senator Barry Goldwater in a landslide.
Battle of Đắk Tô begins in South Vietnam

The Battle of Đắk Tô begins in the Vietnamese Central Highlands as North Vietnamese units attack American and South Vietnamese forces. While the Vietnamese People's Army could not drive back the American forces, there were significant casualties on both sides.
Ash-Shiraa first reports Iran-Contra affair

Ash-Shiraa, a Lebanese newspaper, reports the sale of American weapons to the Iranian government and the Nicaraguan Contras. According to the reports, the United States had sold weapons to Iran in order to secure the release of Americans held hostage in Lebanon by the terrorist organization Hezbollah.
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