Arthur Bernon Tourtellot
Arthur Bernon Tourtellot (1913-1977) was an editor, author, and television producer who wrote and developed many projects on political and military history including William Diamond’s Drum: The Beginning of the War of the American Revolution (Doubleday, 1959).
For further reading: The Story of the Declaration of Independence , by Dumas Malone (Oxford University Press, 1954); Four Days in July , by Cornel A. Lengyel (Doubleday, 1958).
Articles by this Contributor
August 1959
Forty years ago a Boston banker suggested that the Battle of Lexington had become a myth, and later evidence proves him right
December 1962
The men who signed the Declaration of Independence had very few illusions about what they were risking. How much of what they pledged did they actually lose?

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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.




