Skip to main content

Featured Essays

Some writers ignore a mountain of evidence that is contrary to their theories about the telephone's development.

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.

Our Founders profoundly transformed the way people participate in government.

America 250!

Glover and the “Indispensables” Save Washington’s Army | Spring 2024, Vol 69, No 2

By Patrick K. O'Donnell

John 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.

washington delaware

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.

drama at old north bridge

Knox Brings Cannon and Victory to General Washington | Fall 2025, Vol 70, No 4

By Edwin S. Grosvenor

Setting out 250 years ago this month, Henry Knox’s “Noble Train” carried 60 tons of desperately needed artillery to help patriots oust British forces from Boston.

knox train

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.

American Heritage Logo

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

Classic Essays from the Archives

A Few Parchment Pages Two Hundred Years Later | May/June 1987, Summer 2025, Vol 70, No 3

By Richard B. Morris

The framers of the Constitution were proud of what they had done but might be astonished that their words still carry so much weight. A distinguished scholar tells us how the great charter has survived and flourished.

framers

The Treasure From The Carpentry Shop | December 1979, Vol 31, No 1

By David McCullough

THE EXTRAORDINARY ORIGINAL DRAWINGS OF THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE

bridge drawing

The Meaning of 1918 | Fall 2018 - World War I Special Issue, Vol 63, No 3

By John Lukacs

A century after the guns fell silent along the Western Front, the work they did there remains of incalculable importance to the age we inhabit and the people we are.

American Heritage Logo

SUPPORT AMERICAN HERITAGE BY BUYING A NEW EBOOK!