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Featured Essays
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.
A private pilot named Kenneth Arnold kicked off a worldwide craze when he claimed he saw a string of shiny saucers fly past Mount Rainier in 1947.
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.
America 250!
America 50, the First Jubilee | , Vol 71, No 3
By Joseph Connor“And so old Mr. Adams is dead; on the 4th of July, too, just half a century after our Declaration of Independence...”
“The Die is Now Cast” | November/December 2024, Vol 69, No 5
By Joseph J. EllisAmerican resistance to British authority developed with stunning speed 250 years ago in response to George III’s inflexibility.
Leadership of the Founders | Winter 2026, Vol 71, No 1
By Joseph J. EllisOur nation came into being thanks to an unexpected explosion of political talent in an emerging nation on the fringe of the Atlantic world.
They Turned the World Upside Down | Winter 2026, Vol 71, No 1
By Richard BellAmerican patriots began a conflict that spread around the globe.
Drama at the Old North Bridge | Spring 2025, Vol 70, No 2
By Rick Atkinson“Now the war has begun and no one knows when it will end,” said one minuteman after the fight.
Classic Essays from the Archives
Columbus and Genocide | October 1975, Vol 26, No 6
By Edward T. StoneThe discoverer of the New World was responsible for the annihilation of the peaceful Arawak Indians
Lincoln and Presidential Character | October 2020, Vol 65, No 6
By David S. ReynoldsAbraham Lincoln learned much of what made him a great president — honesty, sincerity, toughness, and humility — from his early reading and from studying the lives of Washington and Franklin.
FDR and His Women | March 2003, Summer 2025, Vol 54, No 1
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.
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