America Unabridged: The Readers Respond
June/July 2005 | Volume 56, Issue 3
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Email I very much enjoyed your fiftieth anniversary issue. Like any fan, I have my own additions to your all-time greatest team.
BIOGRAPHY
An Imperfect God , by Henry Wiencek (2003; Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
This is a brilliant, illuminating work wherein the reader discovers how George Washington’s perceptions of slavery evolved over time much in the way Abraham Lincoln’s did later. It gives the reader a greater appreciation of a great man.
Hawthorne in Concord , by Philip McFarland (2004; Grove Press) A beautifully written book that brings Hawthorne and transcendentalist New England to vivid life. The second-best biography I’ve ever read (the best is Dickens , by Peter Ackroyd).
HISTORICAL NOVELS
Where was The Red Badge of Courage , by Stephen Crane (1895)? It is all young men in all wars.
THE WEST
The Year of Decision: 1846 , by Bernard DeVoto (1942; Little, Brown) This masterpiece details the Mexican War, the Oregon Trail, the Mormons, and the Donner Party.
CIVIL WAR
Landscape Turned Red , by Stephen W. Sears (1983; Ticknor and Fields)
Quite simply, the best study of a single battle ever written. And what a battle!
MODERN TIMES
The Book of Mormon . A second testament of Jesus Christ, it is also a history of the ancient peoples of America. It’s a central scripture, along with the Bible, of a worldwide, rapidly expanding church of approximately 12 million.
Thanks for your time and your excellent magazine.
American Heritage is proud to host the
National Portal to
Historic Collections
Recently added:
- American Revolution Center
- National Museum of Civil War Medicine
- National Museum of the U.S. Navy
- Manassas National Battlefield
- Maryland State House
In association with the
American Association for State and Local History
Why do we need a national nonprofit membership society for American history?
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“Save America’s Treasures” has been totally eliminated—the largest Federal program supporting preservation of such treasures as the original Star Spangled Banner and George Washington’s tent.
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65% of Americans don’t know what happened at the Constitutional Convention, according to a recent survey by Newsweek.
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The “Teaching American History” grants—the largest Federal program supporting history education—have been completely eliminated.
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Visits to the Top 20 Civil War battlefields have dropped in half from 1970 to 2009 according to official National Park Service statistics.
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40% of Americans can’t identify whom we fought in World War II, according to a recent survey by Newsweek.
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A quarter of Americans believe Congress shares power over U.S. foreign policy with the United Nations, according to a recent Annenberg survey.
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“There is little that is more important for an American citizen to know than the history and traditions of his country,” John F. Kennedy wrote in American Heritage.
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The “We the People Program,” which touched some 30 million students and 90,000 teachers over 25 years, has been completely eliminated.
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Two-thirds of Americans could not correctly name Yorktown as the last major military action of the American Revolution, according to a recent national Gallup survey.
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The National Heritage Areas and Scenic Byways program, the only major Federal program encouraging visits to historic places, has been completely eliminated in Congressional committee.
