Favorite Articles of 2024

1. Quiet Heroines: Nurses in Vietnam, by Diane Carlson Evans
We weren't always welcomed home from the war. But we were good at what we did and the patients knew we mattered.

2. Why Is the American Revolution So Important? Our nation is free because, 250 years ago, brave men and women fought a war to establish the independence of the United States and created a system of government to protect the freedom of its citizens. By Jack D. Warren

3. FDR’s War of Words with Lindbergh, by Paul Sparrow
Charles Lindbergh and the isolationists of American First opposed Lend Lease and Roosevelt’s attempts to prepare for possible war in Europe.

4. Honoring the Incredible Sacrifice of the Sullivan Family, by Edwin S. Grosvenor
One of the great tragedies of World War II, when five brothers were lost on the same ship, is remembered at two museums.

5. Why Did Ruby Kill Oswald? By Burt W. Griffin
Sixty years ago, Jack Ruby shot Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. What was his motive? The Warren Commission lawyer who investigated Ruby reveals the killer’s state of mind.

6. Lafayette's Grand American Tour, by Elizabeth Reese
Enormous crowds greeted the Marquis de Lafayette, the French hero of the American Revolution, during his visit to all 24 states nearly 40 years after the war ended.

7. The Plight of Massachusetts Loyalists, by Larry C. Kerpelman
In “the cradle of the American Revolution,” loyalists to the Crown faced a harsh choice: live with terrible abuse where they were, or flee to friendlier, but alien regions.

8. “The Die is Now Cast”, by Joseph J. Ellis
American resistance to British authority developed with stunning speed 250 years ago in response to George III’s inflexibility.

9. Did the First Lady Advise the President Not to Run Again? By Julia Sweig
President Johnson shocked the nation when he ended his bid for reelection in 1968. As early as 1964, Lady Bird had suggested that he might not want to run for a second term.

10. Brutal Reckoning in the Creek War, by Peter Cozzens
Two hundred years ago, the conflict in which the U.S. seized the Deep South from its Native inhabitants was a turning point in American history, but it is largely forgotten today.

11. Franklin Roosevelt Takes on Tammany Hall, by Michael Wolraich
Caught between his campaign for president and his duties as governor, FDR navigated political pressures to force the resignation of New York City’s corrupt mayor, Jimmy Walker.

12. The Revolution Could Have Started Here, by Bob Thompson
At a curious stone tower in Somerville, Massachusetts, panic in 1774 could have sparked a war seven months before Lexington and Concord entered the history books.

13. Two Years That Made the West, by Elliott West
In a momentous couple of years, the young United States added more than a million square miles of territory, including Texas and California.

14. “Boston Harbor a Tea-pot This Night!” By Benjamin Carp
The dumping of tons of tea in protest set the stage for the American Revolution and was a window on the culture and attitudes of the time.

15. Salmon Chase Saves the Union, by Walter Stahr
Lincoln’s Secretary of the Treasury helped win the Civil War with his many financial innovations, and was an ardent advocate of emancipation.

16. Martha Gellhorn Gets Her Story on D-Day, by Marc Lancaster
The famous journalist was arrested for stowing away on a hospital ship to cover the action on Normandy, writing a more compelling article than did her husband, Ernest Hemingway.

17. The Wilsonian Century, by Michael Mandelbaum
In the hundred years since his death, features of Woodrow Wilson’s philosophy have become central to international politics and American foreign policy.

18. The Tragedy of Emmett Till, by Ronald Collins
The boy's vicious killing in Mississippi in 1955 helped to transform America's racial consciousness.

19. George Kennan Exposes Russian Cruelty in Siberia, by Gregory Wallance
In the 1880s, the daring American journalist George Kennan first revealed the horrors of the tsar’s system of Siberian prisons, where the regime sent dissidents who favored democratic reform in Russia.

20. The Controversial Career of Col. Corcoran, by Joseph Connor
Michael Corcoran led New York’s Irish brigade to glory in the Civil War after being disciplined for refusing to parade in honor of Britain's Prince of Wales.