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Featured Essays
Some writers ignore a mountain of evidence that is contrary to their theories about the telephone's development.
Congress forbade living persons from appearing on paper currency in 1866, after an unpopular Treasury Department official put himself on the five-cent note.
The extravaganza celebrating the nation’s first century was the greatest cultural event of America’s Gilded Age.
At the nation’s pivotal moment — the Civil War — two seventeenth-century vessels kept sailing through the American mind: the Mayflower and the slaver White Lion. Their wakes still cut our waters.
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.
For America’s 250th Birthday, Let’s Think Local | Summer 2023, Vol 68, No 4
By Hans ZeigerCommunities around the U.S. hope that the nation's upcoming 250th anniversary will inspire Americans to appreciate the importance of shared experience and preserving history.
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.
The Shots Heard Round the World | Spring 2025, Vol 70, No 2
By John FerlingWhat began as a civil war within the British Empire continued until it became a wider conflict affecting peoples and countries across Europe and North America.
The Revolution Could Have Started Here | Summer 2024, Vol 69, No 3
By Bob ThompsonAt a curious stone tower in Somerville, Massachusetts, panic in 1774 could have sparked a war seven months before Lexington and Concord entered the history books.
Classic Essays from the Archives
Searching for “Shenandoah” | Winter 2022, Summer 2025, Vol 70, No 3
By Bruce WatsonIt's one of the oldest folk ballads in our national songbook, but where did it come from? The answer is complex, multi-layered, American.
Who Invented Scalping? | April 1977, Vol 28, No 3
By James AxtellIn recent years many voices—both Native-American and white—have questioned whether Indians did in fact invent scalping. What is the evidence?
Range Practice | Februrary 1968, Summer 2025, Vol 19, No 2
By Dean AchesonOur former Secretary of State recalls his service fifty years ago in the Connecticut National Guard—asthmatic horses, a ubiquitous major, and a memorable shooting practice.
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