September 2020

The Words of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

rbg old — *Ginsburg passed away on September 18, 2020. She was 87.*

Ruth Bader Ginsburg is why I went to law school. Well, that’s not fully accurate. As a formative adolescent in the late 1960s and early 1970s, I knew her work as a law professor volunteering for the ACLU and arguing before the Supreme Court. I knew what the ACLU was doing, I knew Thurgood Marshall and Bobby Kennedy, and I knew I wanted to be a lawyer.

Lawyers had the power to make things better. Equal justice under law, the phrase engraved above the front entrance of the United States Supreme Court, says it all.

The Coal Miner’s Daughter

Editor's Note: Holley Snaith is a historical researcher who has worked at the Nixon Foundation and Eleanor Roosevelt Center. Photos courtesy of Loretta Lynn Enterprises, unless otherwise noted.

Loretta Lynn recently visited her family's original cabin in Butcher Holler. David McClister. — *Loretta Lynn recently visited her family's original cabin in Butcher Holler in eastern Kentucky. David McClister.*

“Well I was borned a coal miner’s daughter.
In a cabin, on a hill in Butcher Holler.
We were poor but we had love.
That’s the one thing my daddy made sure of.
He shoveled coal to make a poor man’s dollar.”

Heartbreak at Heart Mountain

Editor's Note: Tom Brokaw was the anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News for 22 years. Parts of the following essay appear as the foreword in a new book out this month, Setsuko's Secret: Heart Mountain and the Legacy of the Japanese American Incarceration, written by Shirley Ann Higuchi, chair of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation. Her mother Setsuko was interned at the camp.

Truman Serenades Bacall

Editor's Note: Veteran reporter and journalism professor Gil Klein is author of Tales from the National Press Club and a former president of the Club.

Harry Truman was just three weeks into his vice presidency when he was photographed playing the piano, looking up at Lauren Bacall whose shapely legs hang over the front. — In 1945 Harry Truman was only three weeks into his vice presidency when he was famously photographed playing the National Press Club's piano, looking up at Lauren Bacall whose shapely legs hang down the front. Harris and Ewing, Harry S. Truman Library

Did Hurricanes Save America?

Editor's Note: We published interesting new research in our cover story in the September issue, Did Hurricanes Save America?, with supporting data in British Ships Lost in 1780 Hurricanes.

Here are some of nearly 200 comments we received from readers. Don't forget to sign up to follow us on our Facebook page, where we constantly publish new material.

Weather has always influenced history

We've Got Mail!

supai mail mule — *Supai, Arizona is the only place in the United States where mail is still carried out by mules. USPS*

Editor's Note: Bruce Watson is a writer, historian, and contributing editor at American Heritage. You can read more of his work on his blog, The Attic.

SUPAI VILLAGE, ARIZONA — Deep in the bowels of the biggest canyon on earth, six days a week, with neither rain nor heat nor dead of night to stop it, the U.S. Mail arrives. Each delivery includes letters, junk mail, plus boxes of frozen meat, milk, fresh vegetables, and packages from Amazon.

Yes, Women Could Vote After The 19th Amendment — But Not All Women. Or Men, by Melissa Block

Vietnam War: The Best of American Heritage

This brilliant anthology tells the dramatic story of America's war in Vietnam, with essays by ten leading American historians including Max Boot, Douglas Brinkley, Victor Davis Hanson, and Stanley Karnow.

Compiled and introduced by American Heritage Editor Edwin Grosvenor, the book covers topics from the first American deaths in Vietnam, the dramatic victory at Ia Drang, the Tet offensive, and, finally, the building of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Also included is the report on American Heritage's extensive investigation into the controversial Gulf of Tonkin attack, in which we interviewed the officers and crew of the USS Mattox and reviewed the ship's logs to determine what really happened.

British Ships Lost in 1780 Hurricanes

The HMS Egmont was dismasted and severely damaged in the Great Hurricane of 1780. — *The HMS Egmont was one of at least nine warships severely damaged in the Great Hurricane of 1780, in addition to 15 ships sunk.*

In doing research to support Eric Jay Dolin's important essay in this issue, "Did Hurricanes Save America?," we were not able to find any current histories of the period which provided an answer to that question.

We couldn't find a definitive list of British ships lost. In fact, all available lists of the losses in 1780 turned out to be incomplete, so we created one (see below).

September 2020

Enjoy our work? Help us keep going.