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

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

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.

A Chinatown cook's fight to re-enter the U.S. in 1895 went up to the Supreme Court, which upheld his claim to birthright citizenship and guaranteed it for all through the 14th Amendment. 

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.

Classic Essays from Our Archives

A Few Parchment Pages Two Hundred Years Later | May/June 1987, Summer 2025, Vol 70, No 3

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.

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America: Experiment or Destiny? | June 1977, Summer 2025, 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.

american destiny

Lincoln As Commander in Chief | Winter 2009, Summer 2025, Vol 58, No 6

By James M. McPherson

Even though he had no military training, Lincoln quickly rose to become one of America’s most talented commanders.

lincoln as commander in chief

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.

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Lincoln and Presidential Character | October 2020, Vol 65, No 6

By David S. Reynolds

Abraham Lincoln learned much of what made him a great president — honesty, sincerity, toughness, and humility — from his early reading and from studying the lives of Washington and Franklin.

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Searching for “Shenandoah” | Winter 2022, Summer 2025, Vol 70, No 3

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.

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    Today in History

  • General James McPherson born

    Union Major General James McPherson is born in Clyde, Ohio. McPherson graduated first in the West Point Class of 1853 and spent his entire career in the United States Army before being mortally wounded at the Battle of Atlanta in 1864.

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  • Apalachin Meeting

    State and local law enforcement raid the Apalachin Meeting of over one hundred North American mafiosi, who had gathered at the rural estate of Joseph "Joe the Barber" Barbara. By arresting and questioning a majority of the mafiosi, the federal government confirmed the presence of the American mafia.

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  • Joe McCarthy born

    Future United States Senator Joseph McCarthy is born in Grand Chute, Wisconsin. McCarthy served in the Marines during World War II before being elected to represent Wisconsin the Senate, where he served from 1947 until his death in 1957. McCarthy is most famous for his campaign to identify and quash communist threats during the Cold War, better known as McCarthyism.

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