Classic Essays from Our Archives

Herbert Hoover Describes the Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson | June 1958, Vol 9, No 4

The great tragedy of the twenty-eighth President as witnessed by his loyal lieutenant, the thirty-first.

Ike's Son Remembers George S. Patton Jr. | Summer 2012, Vol 62, No 2

The author, who once served under General Patton and whose father, Dwight D. Eisenhower, was Patton's commanding officer, shares his memories of "Ol' Blood and Guts."

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

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.

A Yankee Among The War Lords | October 1970, Vol 21, No 6

First of the Three Parts from STILWELL THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE IN CHINA 1911-1945

The Man of the Century | May/June 1994, Vol 45, No 3

Of all the Allied leaders, argues FDR's biographer, only Roosevelt saw clearly the shape of the new world they were fighting to create.

Range Practice | Februrary 1968, Vol 19, No 2

Our former Secretary of State recalls his service fifty years ago in the Connecticut National Guard—asthmatic horses, a ubiquitous major, and a memorable

Searching for “Shenandoah” | Winter 2022, Vol 67, No 1

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.

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

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

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

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.

A Few Parchment Pages Two Hundred Years Later | May/June 1987, Vol 38, No 4

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.

The Treasure From The Carpentry Shop | December 1979, Vol 31, No 1

THE EXTRAORDINARY ORIGINAL DRAWINGS OF THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE

The Day The Civil War Ended | June/July 1978, Vol 29, No 4

At the Gettysburg reunion fifty years after the battle, it was no longer blue and gray. Now it was all gray.

Columbus and Genocide | October 1975, Vol 26, No 6

The discoverer of the New World was responsible for the annihilation of the peaceful Arawak Indians

Alice Paul: “I Was Arrested, Of Course…” | February 1974, Vol 25, No 2

An interview with the famed suffragette, Alice Paul

On History | February 1964, Vol 15, No 2

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

Did Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson Love Each Other? | Fall 2008, Vol 58, No 5

To call it loaded question does not begin to do justice to the matter, given America’s tortured racial history and its haunting legacy.

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

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

Who Invented Scalping? | April 1977, Vol 28, No 3

In recent years many voices—both Native-American and white—have questioned whether Indians did in fact invent scalping. What is the evidence?

The Meaning of 1918 | Fall 2018 - World War I Special Issue, Vol 63, No 3

A century after the guns fell silent along the Western Front, the work they did there remains of incalculable importance to the age we inhabit and the people we are.

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

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.

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

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

The Cuban Missile Crisis as seen from the Kremlin

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

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.

"The Sparck of Rebellion" | Winter 2010, Vol 59, No 4

Badly disguised as Indians, a rowdy group of patriotic vandals kicked a revolution into motion.