Seeing The Century

Your December 1999 issue confirmed feelings I’ve long harbored: that American Heritage is the brightest, bestedited magazine in the country. What fun you must have had, selecting the sole picture and writing the accompanying text, for each of the century’s one hundred years. My favorite? The year 1968 ("Hell Yes, We’ll Undress!"). How brave. You must have gotten many letters of complaint saying that wasn’t what 1968 was really about. Not to worry. I was born in 1949 and now often find myself explaining the insane era of my youth; young people ask how committed, how passionate were we then. I always reply, “Dates. No protest, no dates. ‘Girls say yes to guys who say no.’'” (Okay, I had it wrong: boys .) Your selection is singularly on the mark—from my point of view, which was ringside.