AMERICAN HERITAGE

Featured Essays

As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence, our founding charter remains central to our national life, unifying us and paving the way for what we have long called “the American Dream.”

They Turned the World Upside Down

by Richard Bell

American patriots began a conflict that spread around the globe.

“The Law is King”

by Matthew Spalding

The Rule of Law is the great foundation of our Constitution and our Nation.

The Genius of America: Our Constitution

by Eric Lane

America’s extraordinary success is directly related to its unique form of government embodied in the Constitution.

America 250!

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.

Revolution Song | Fall 2019 - George Washington Prize Books, Vol 64, No 5

By Russell Shorto

The American War for Independence was part of an international trend -- a new focus on the individual that inspired people to new insights, new proclamations, and new assertions of rights.

“Boston Harbor a Tea-pot This Night!” | Spring 2024, Vol 69, No 2

By Benjamin Carp

The dumping of tons of tea in protest set the stage for the American Revolution and was a window on the culture and attitudes of the time.

Boston's Freedom Trail | July/August 2020, Vol 65, No 4

By Brent Glass

Sixteen historic sites in Boston remind Americans of the events that led to our nation’s birth, from the Boston Massacre to Breed's Hill and the USS Constitution.

Rethinking the Boston Massacre | Special Issue - George Washington Prize 2018, Vol 63, No 2

By Eric Hinderaker

It is one of the most notorious incidents in American history, and also one of the least understood.

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.

Did Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson Love Each Other? | Fall 2008, Summer 2025, Vol 70, No 3

By Annette Gordon-Reed

To call it a loaded question does not begin to do justice to the matter, given America’s tortured racial history and its haunting legacy.

The Conversion of Harry Truman | November 1991, Vol 42, No 7

By William E. Leuchtenburg

A child of the South's "Lost Cause," Truman broke with his convictions to make civil rights a concern of the national government for the first time since Reconstruction. In so doing, he changed the nation forever.