John Lukacs
John Lukacs served as a Professor of History at Chestnut Hill College from 1947 to 1994, and is the noted author of Outgrowing Democracy: A History of the United States in the Twentieth Century, and The Legacy of the Second World War.
Articles by this Contributor
June 1959
October/November 1978
Gargantuan, gross, and cynical, the patrician boss Boies Penrose descended from aristocracy to dominate Pennsylvania Republican politics for thirty years
February/march 1981
To Owen Wister, the unlikely inventor of the cowboy myth, the trail rider was “the last cavalier,” the savior of the Anglo-Saxon race
October/November 1986
For a few weeks Hitler came close to winning World War II. Then came a train of events that doomed him. An eloquent historian reminds us that however unsatisfactory our world may be today, it almost was unimaginably worse.
May/June 1987
A fond, canny, and surprising tour of the town where the Constitution was born
March 1989
At a time when many are concerned by the nation’s loss of the unassailable economic position it occupied just after World War II, one historian argues that our real strength—and our real peril—lie elsewhere
November 1990
Americans have always sympathized with the Eastern European countries in their struggles for democracy, but for two centuries we haven’t been able to help much. Do we have a chance now? A distinguished expatriate looks at the odds.
December 1991
In 1941 the President understood better than many Americans the man who was running Germany, and Hitler understood Roosevelt and his country better than we knew
February/March 1992
The Cold War was an anomaly: more often than not the world’s two greatest states have lived together in uneasy amity. And what now?

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
Civil War Chronicles
Breaking News & Real-time Coverage
From the Editors of American Heritage
-
March 12, 1862
JACKSONVILLE, FL—Union forces from the USS Ottawa, led by Lieutenant Thomas Stevens, land and seize Jacksonville unopposed.
-
March 9, 1862
HAMPTON ROADS, VA—The USS Monitor and CSS Virginia clash for nearly four hours in the first naval battle between ironclads. Neither ship could claim victory, but the battle revolutionized naval warfare.
-
March 8, 1862
BENTON COUNTY, AR—Union Brigadier General Samuel R. Curtis leads an outnumbered Union army to victory at the Battle of Pea Ridge. This victory ended the Confederate threat to Missouri and Federal soldiers secured northern Arkansas.
-
March 6, 1862
NEW YORK, NY—The USS Monitor leaves New York Harbor, accompanied by the USS Currituck and USS Sachem, headed for Hampton Roads, Virginia.
-
March 2, 1862
COLUMBUS, KY—Confederate General Leonidas Polk leaves Columbus, ending the Confederate defensive line of Kentucky. Polk initially violated Kentucky's neutrality by occupying Kentucky in September 1861.
-
February 24, 1862
NASHVILLE, TN—Following the Confederate defeat at Fort Donelson, Union forces under General Don Carlos Buell arrive in Nashville. Nashville was the first Confederate state capital to be captured, and would remain in Union hands for the remainder of the Civil War.
-
February 18, 1862
RICHMOND, VA—The Confederate Congress meets for the first time, where it hears about the surrender of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson.
-
February 12, 1862
FORT DONELSON, TN—General Ulyssess S. Grant moves his Union forces overland from Fort Henry on the Tennessee River to the outer defenses of Fort Donelson, on the Cumberland River. Flag Officer Andrew H. Foote would move his flotilla downstream to support Grant's advance.
-
February 6, 1862
FT HENRY, TN—A joint Union Army and Navy expedition captures Fort Henry along the Tennessee River, as Confederate General Lloyd Tilghman surrenders to Flag Officer Andrew H. Foote. The rising waters of the Tennessee condemned several of the defensive batteries, leaving it vulnerable to enemy fire.
-
February 5, 1862
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM—Queen Victoria ends all export restrictions on munitions from Great Britain, opening up the market for both sides to import British gunpowder and firearms.




