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Featured Essays

While Robert Morris is remembered as the "financier of the Revolution," his partner and former boss, Thomas Willing, has been lost to history despite his own contributions to early American business and finance. 

Decades before the Ayatollah, even before the shah, early Americans found themselves enchanted with Iranian culture, politics, and history.

By organizing weekly gatherings of political leaders and citizens, she proved democracy works best when rivals see one another as human beings.

William Seward's 1868 attempt to acquire the Danish territory was the country's first, but not the last. 

America 250!

John Dickinson: Forgotten Founder | Fall 2025, Vol 70, No 4

By Jane E. Calvert

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.

dickinson farmer

Patriots or Terrorists? | Fall 2008, Vol 58, No 5

By Edwin G. Burrows

The Lost Story of Revolutionary War POW’s

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They Turned the World Upside Down | Winter 2026, Vol 71, No 1

By Richard Bell

American patriots began a conflict that spread around the globe.

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Big Guns For Washington | April 1955, Vol 6, No 3

By Clay Perry

How tough Henry Knox hauled a train of cannon over wintry trails to help drive the British away from Boston

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“The Die is Now Cast” | November/December 2024, Vol 69, No 5

By Joseph J. Ellis

American resistance to British authority developed with stunning speed 250 years ago in response to George III’s inflexibility. 

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Classic Essays from the Archives

“The Tide is Setting Strongly Against Us” | Winter 2010, Vol 59, No 4

By Edward L. Ayers

Lincoln’s bid for reelection in 1864 faced serious challenges from a popular opponent and a nation weary of war.

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Two Intimate Enemies | September 2000, Summer 2025, Vol 51, No 5

By Joseph J. Ellis

When 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.

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Columbus and Genocide | October 1975, Vol 26, No 6

By Edward T. Stone

The discoverer of the New World was responsible for the annihilation of the peaceful Arawak Indians

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