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Featured Essays
Recent rehabilitation of this important site at the Gettysburg battlefield provides a much improved experience for visitors.
A Chinatown cook's fight to re-enter the U.S. in 1895 went up to the Supreme Court, which upheld his claim to birthright citizenship and guaranteed it for all through the 14th Amendment.
Dickinson played a pivotal role in our Nation’s founding, from the Stamp Act to ratifying the Constitution, but his contributions are largely forgotten by history.
Some delegates at the Constitutional Convention wanted a strong executive, while others feared the American president might become a king.
America 250!
Glover and the “Indispensables” Save Washington’s Army | Spring 2024, Vol 69, No 2
By Patrick K. O'DonnellJohn Glover and the men of Marblehead saved the Continental Army several times, and then helped it cross the Delaware to victory at Trenton and Princeton.
Discovered: First Maps of the American Revolution | Spring 2025, Vol 70, No 2
By Edwin S. GrosvenorPreviously unknown, a map drawn by Lord Percy, the British commander at Lexington, sheds new light on the perilous retreat to Boston 250 years ago this month.
Rethinking the Boston Massacre | Special Issue - George Washington Prize 2018, Vol 63, No 2
By Eric HinderakerIt is one of the most notorious incidents in American history, and also one of the least understood.
Did Hurricanes Save America? | September 2020, Vol 65, No 5
By Eric Jay DolinThe outcome of the American Revolution may have been affected by catastrophic storms in the deadliest hurricane season in recorded history.
The Plight of Massachusetts Loyalists | Spring 2024, Vol 69, No 2
By Larry C. KerpelmanIn “the cradle of the American Revolution,” loyalists to the Crown faced a harsh choice: live with terrible abuse where they were, or flee to friendlier, but alien regions.
Classic Essays from the Archives
Two Intimate Enemies | September 2000, Summer 2025, Vol 70, No 3
By Joseph J. EllisWhen John Adams was elected president, and Thomas Jefferson as vice president, each came to see the other as a traitor. Out of their enmity grew our modern political system.
FDR and His Women | March 2003, Summer 2025, Vol 70, No 3
By Ellen FeldmanA novelist who has just spent several years studying Eleanor Roosevelt, Lucy Rutherfurd, and Missy LeHand tells a moving story of love: public and private, given and withheld.
Lincoln As Commander in Chief | Winter 2009, Summer 2025, Vol 58, No 6
By James M. McPhersonEven though he had no military training, Lincoln quickly rose to become one of America’s most talented commanders.
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