The Editors

Articles by this Author

The Best Essays of 2022, November/December 2022 | Vol. 68, No. 6

From the life of Lincoln to the late David McCullough, here are the top 10 stories that fascinated our readers in 2022.

Pauline Maier on The History of the Fourth, Summer 2022 | Vol. 67, No. 3

In her 1997 essay, one of America's most celebrated female historians explains why Independence Day falls on July 4th.

Christmas Dinner at Mount Vernon, Winter 2021 | Vol. 66, No. 1

Roast pig, boiled rockfish, and apple pie were among the dishes George and Martha enjoyed during the holiday in 1797. Here are some actual recipes.

About the Cover; Special Thanks to our Editorial Assistant , Fall 2020 George Washington Prize | Vol. 65, No. 8

Thanksgiving Dinner During The Revolution, November 2020 | Vol. 65, No. 7

A menu for a 1779 New England Thanksgiving included dishes from turkey and venison to pumpkin pie.

Images of Gun History from Our Archives, September/October 2019 | Vol. 64, No. 4

Here are some amusing -- and some very sad -- images we collected from the archives of American Heritage.

Americans in the Spanish Civil War, Last Rough Rider, The '38 Hurricane, Summer 2019 | Vol. 64, No. 3

Gens. Eisenhower & Patton; George Washington Returns; The Iron Spine; The Ship That Wouldn't Die, Spring 2019 | Vol. 64, No. 2

The April 1969 issue was typical of classic issues of American Heritage, with dramatic and substantive essays on George Washington, Ike and Patton, the Transcontinental Railroad, the "ship that wouldn't die," and many other fascinating subjects from our nation's past

50 Years Ago, Summer 2012 | Vol. 62, No. 2

Historian S. L. A. Marshall tells how he and “Papa” Hemingway liberated Paris.

25 Years Ago, Summer 2012 | Vol. 62, No. 2

Andrew Wyeth reflects on his father, the artist N. C. Wyeth.

Early Painting of Aviation Shows Flying Machines Not Yet Able to Take Off, Spring 2012 | Vol. 62, No. 1

The Katzenjammer Kids creator, John Dirks, created one of the first paintings to depict aviation.

The New Mexico and Arizona Centennials, Spring 2012 | Vol. 62, No. 1

A 62-year-long quest for statehood ended on January 6, 1912.

A D.C. Civil War Hospital Becomes a Community Center, Fall 2011 | Vol. 61, No. 2

A Lincoln-commissioned naval hospital opens its doors in its newest reincarnation as a vibrant community center.

Juking at The Library of Congress, Fall 2011 | Vol. 61, No. 2

America's oldest recorded music goes online at a new Library of Congress website.

Eating History, Fall 2011 | Vol. 61, No. 2

A New York Public Library program asks the public to help transcribe 10,000 historic menus.

Civil War Chronicles Redux, Spring 2011 | Vol. 61, No. 1

American Heritage expands its Civil War coverage as the sesquicentennial begins

Spring 2011 Books, Spring 2011 | Vol. 61, No. 1

The Discovery of the "Two Brothers" Whaler, Spring 2011 | Vol. 61, No. 1

The only known shipwreck of a 19th-century whaler is found 500 miles northwest of Hawaii.

From Russia with Love, Spring 2011 | Vol. 61, No. 1

Long-lost American silent films have been found in Russian archives.

A Trove of Jefferson's Books Found!, Spring 2011 | Vol. 61, No. 1

St. Louis's Washington University has discovered that it owns a trove of the third president's books.

Goodbye to the Last Doughboy, Spring 2011 | Vol. 61, No. 1

A tribute to Frank Buckles, the last American World-War-I veteran

The Civil War's 150th is Heating Up, Winter 2011 | Vol. 60, No. 4

More Civil War at The National Archives, Winter 2011 | Vol. 60, No. 4

The National Jewish Museum, Winter 2011 | Vol. 60, No. 4

FDR Declassified, Fall 2010 | Vol. 60, No. 3

After 65 years, the archives of FDR’s personal secretary are now open to the public.

The Last Confederate Prison, Fall 2010 | Vol. 60, No. 3

Archaeologists in Georgia have found the location of the prison that served as an overflow facility for Andersonville.

Fall Books, Fall 2010 | Vol. 60, No. 3

Texas' Pacific War Museum, Summer 2010 | Vol. 60, No. 2

Traveling National Archives Exhibits on the Civil War, Summer 2010 | Vol. 60, No. 2

Hoover Dam Turns 75, Summer 2010 | Vol. 60, No. 2

A new bridge spans the Colorado River near the dam that came to symbolize America’s great promise—and changed the American West forever.

Featured Authors

Acheson, Dean

Dean Acheson (1893-1971) was an attorney and statesman who served as Secretary of State from 1949 to 1953 under President Harry Truman. A key architect of the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, Acheson stressed the importance of multilateral organizations in the fight against totalitarianism. Prior to his service in the Truman Administration, Acheson clerked for Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, worked at Washington law firm Covington & Burling, and served as Undersecretary of the Treasury for one year under President Franklin Roosevelt.

Ambrose, Stephen E.

Stephen E. Ambrose (1936-2002) was a historian and professor who wrote on military history, presidential history, and American expansion and foreign policy. Ambrose has been praised for his biographies of Presidents Eisenhower and Nixon, and for helping to galvanize interest in World War II.

Becker, Elizabeth

Elizabeth Becker is an award-winning journalist and the author of several books. Her history When The War Was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge won accolades from the Robert F. Kennedy book award, while her recent biography of female conflict journalists You Don’t Belong Here: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War won the 2022 Sperber Book Prize and Harvard’s Goldsmith Book Prize. She is also the author of America’s Vietnam War: A Narrative History for young adults.

Bird, Kai

Kai Bird is a historian and Executive Director of Leon Levy Center for Biography at the City University of New York. He is best known for writing about the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Vietnam War, US-Middle East relations and biographies of political figures. Bird is the author of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize, and The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames, a New York Times bestseller. His most recent book is The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter.

Blight, David W.

David W. Blight is the Class of 1954 Professor of American History and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance & Abolition at Yale University. Recently, Blight has written A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including Their Narratives of Emancipation, and Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory, which won the Bancroft Prize, the Abraham Lincoln Prize, and the Frederick Douglass Prize.