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Articles Recently Featured from Our Archives
Reassessing Spiro Agnew | June 2020, Vol 65, No 3
Although he was forced to resign as Nixon’s Vice President, Agnew’s tough-guy persona set the precedent for subsequent anti-establishment figures, including Donald Trump.
Librarians at War | July/August 2020, Vol 65, No 4
The origins of today’s vast intelligence apparatus can be traced, in part, to the forgotten efforts of librarians and archivists to gather information during World War II
Mayflower's Place in History | October 2020, Vol 65, No 6
The story of the Pilgrims’ journey in 1620, and the voyage of Mayflower II in 1957, are still sources of inspiration today.
Thurgood Marshall, American Revolutionary | Winter 2020, Vol 64, No 1
The architect of American race relations in the 20th century, he ended legal segregation in the United States and became the first African-American on the Supreme Court.
Yellow Fever Stalks the Founders | Spring 2020, Vol 65, No 2
During George Washington’s first term, an epidemic killed one-tent of Philadelphians, which was the capital of the young United States.
A Fateful Experiment at Jamestown | Winter 2020, Vol 64, No 1
The first votes of the fledgling Virginia Assembly in 1619 marked the inception of the most important political development in American history — the rise of democracy.
Voyage of Mercy | Winter 2020, Vol 64, No 1
In the blackest days of the Great Potato Famine in Ireland, Americans responded by organizing the first international humanitarian mission, sending food and provisions in the refitted warship USS Jamestown.
The Spanish Flu Strikes | Spring 2020, Vol 65, No 2
Toward the end of World War I, American doctors fought an invisible enemy on the home front — a pandemic that would kill more people than any other outbreak of disease in human history.
John Marshall Saves the Republic | Winter 2020, Vol 64, No 1
Our greatest Chief Justice defined the Constitution and ensured that the rule of law prevailed at a time of presidential overreach and bitter political factionalism.
The Woman Who Said “No” to McCarthy | Winter 2020, Vol 64, No 1
Republican Senator Margaret Chase Smith was the first in Congress to stand up to the bullying of Joe McCarthy.
The Frémonts Open the West | Winter 2020, Vol 64, No 1
With five major exploring expeditions west of the Mississippi, John C. Frémont redefined the country — with the help of his wife’s promotional skills.
Corruption and Treason in the Buchanan Cabinet | February/March 2021, Vol 66, No 2
Did James Buchanan know that his Secretary of War, a future Confederate general, sent 110,000 muskets to armories in the South in 1860?
Harding and Teapot Dome | February/March 2021, Vol 66, No 2
Prior to Watergate, Harding's bribery ring was regarded as the greatest and most sensational scandal in the history of American politics.
The Reasonable Right to Bear Arms | September/October 2019, Vol 64, No 4
The Supreme Court left the door open for reasonable regulations of guns, if Congress has the will to act.
A History of Gun Rights in America | September/October 2019, Vol 64, No 4
After ten years of research into the history of gun rights, it’s clear that most Americans' understanding of the “right to bear arms” is not consistent with historical facts.
Freedom of Religion: America’s Greatest Invention | Winter 2020, Vol 64, No 1
While much of the world still faces restrictions on religion, America's unique approach brought about both religious freedom and spiritual vibrancy.
George Washington Invents the Presidency | Winter 2020, Vol 64, No 1
The young nation was lucky to have the only candidate on Earth who could do the job.
Madison and the Invention of Congress | Winter 2020, Vol 64, No 1
Members of the first federal Congress had to create a new government almost from scratch.
FDR's New Deal | Winter 2020, Vol 64, No 1
Roosevelt felt the country needed “direct, vigorous action” to pull it out of the Depression.
Largely overlooked in histories of the Revolution, the Battle of the Chesapeake is in fact one of the most important naval engagements in history, leading to the American victory at Yorktown.
Native American peoples and the lands they possessed loomed large for Washington, from his first trips westward as a surveyor to his years as president.
McCullough's "The Pioneers" | Summer 2019, Vol 64, No 3
David McCullough’s latest book tells the story of a small group of Revolutionary War veterans and pioneers who set out on an extraordinary 800-mile journey through the wilderness to establish the first settlement in the Ohio Territory.
The Legend of Mickey Mantle | September/October 2019, Vol 64, No 4
He was unlike any other baseball star in America, a blond-haired boy from the heartland whose raw power and mythical purity made him a hero.
Light-Horse Harry's Tragic Fight for Freedom of the Press | Summer 2019, Vol 64, No 3
In the bitter debate over the War of 1812, the decorated veteran nearly died fighting a Baltimore mob in defense of an unpopular Federalist publisher.
A Comedy of Errors at the Nobel Prize | Spring 2019, Vol 64, No 2
We've gotten one farce after another from the secretive judges at the Swedish Academy who confer the world's most prestigious prize for literature.
Mary Trump: The Lucky Lass from Stornoway | September 2020, Vol 65, No 5
The daughter of a Gaelic-speaking fisherman on a remote Scottish island emigrated to New York, worked as a maid in the Carnegie Mansion, and married Fred Trump. Her son would become a tycoon like his father and then the president.
Blackface: The Sad History of Minstrel Shows | Winter 2019, Vol 64, No 1
For most of the 1800s, whites in blackface performed in widely popular minstrel shows, creating racist stereotypes that endured for more than a century.
The Importance of Mill Springs | Winter 2019, Vol 64, No 1
The first significant Union victory in the Civil War is now honored at one of the newest National Monuments. It was a battle too often ignored by historians and the public.
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.
Agony and Triumph at Anzio | Winter 2019, Vol 64, No 1
Seventy-five years ago, Allied soldiers made a daring amphibious landing behind German lines and were soon surrounded in what would become one of the toughest battles of World War II.