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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!

The Battle that Led to Victory at Yorktown | Fall 2019 - George Washington Prize Books, Vol 64, No 5

By Nathaniel Philbrick

Largely overlooked in histories of the Revolution, the Battle of the Chesapeake is in fact one of the most important naval engagements in history, leading to the American victory at Yorktown.

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“Shall We Have a King?” | Fall 2025, Vol 70, No 4

By William E. Leuchtenburg

Some delegates at the Constitutional Convention wanted a strong executive, while others feared the American president might become a king.

constitutional convention

Did Hurricanes Save America? | September 2020, Vol 65, No 5

By Eric Jay Dolin

The outcome of the American Revolution may have been affected by catastrophic storms in the deadliest hurricane season in recorded history.

hurricanes america

An Update on “Save the Glover!” | Spring 2026, Vol 71, No 2

By Nancy L. Schultz

Efforts continue to preserve the historic home of General John Glover in Swampscott, Massachusetts, which is still slated for demolition.

glover house

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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Classic Essays from the Archives

Growing Up Colored | Summer 2012, Summer 2025, Vol 62, No 2

By Henry Louis Gates Jr.

The noted writer and educator tells of his boyhood in the West Virginia town of Piedmont, where African Americans were second-class citizens, but family pride ran deep.

Henry Louis Gates and family

Alice Paul: “I Was Arrested, Of Course…” | February 1974, Summer 2025, Vol 70, No 3

By Robert S. Gallagher

An interview with the famed suffragette, Alice Paul

alice paul

Searching for “Shenandoah” | Winter 2022, Summer 2025, Vol 70, No 3

By Bruce Watson

It's one of the oldest folk ballads in our national songbook, but where did it come from? The answer is complex, multi-layered, American.

trapper family

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