AMERICAN HERITAGE

Featured Articles

Introduction: Revisiting Concord and Lexington

by Edwin S. Grosvenor

This special issue looks at the dramatic and momentous events that occurred 250 years ago this month.

Drama at the Old North Bridge

by Rick Atkinson

“Now the war has begun and no one knows when it will end,” said one minuteman after the fight.

Discovered: First Maps of the American Revolution

by Edwin S. Grosvenor

Previously 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

by John Ferling

What 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 Forgotten Battle of Menotomy

by Michael Ruderman

Overshadowed in memory by Lexington and Concord, the Massachusetts town of Menotomy saw the most violent and deadly fighting on April 19, 1775.

Classic Essays from Our Archives

On History | February 1964, Vol 15, No 2

By John F. Kennedy

"Americans are united by their history and by a faith in progress, justice, and freedom," writes President Kennedy

The Slave Who Sued for Freedom | March 1990, Vol 41, No 2

By Jon Swan

While the American Revolution was still being fought, Mum Bett declared that the new nation’s principle of liberty must extend to her, too. It took 80 years and a far-more-terrible war to confirm the rights that she had demanded.

Lincoln As Commander in Chief | Winter 2009, Vol 58, No 6

By James M. McPherson

Even though he had no military training, Lincoln quickly rose to become one of America’s most talented commanders.

America: Experiment or Destiny? | June 1977, Vol 28, No 4

By Arthur Schlesinger Jr.

We can take pride in our nation, not as we pretend to a commission from God and a sacred destiny, but as we struggle to fulfill our deepest values in an inscrutable world.

How My Father and President Kennedy Saved The World | October 2002, Vol 53, No 5

By Sergei Khrushchev

The Cuban Missile Crisis as seen from the Kremlin

Lincoln and Presidential Character | October 2020, Vol 65, No 6

By David S. Reynolds

Abraham 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.

Today in History

Fort Pulaski surrenders

Union cannon bombard Fort Pulaski along the Savannah River, forcing the Confederate garrison to surrender. The loss of Fort Pulaski effectively closed Savannah to Confederate blockade runners and demonstrated the ineffectiveness of masonry forts against modern artillery.
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Truman relieves MacArthur

President Harry S. Truman relieves General Douglas MacArthur from commanding United Nations forces during the Korean War. MacArthur had made several insubordinate comments that had undermined President Truman's foreign policies and sought a widespread expansion of the conflict.
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LBJ signs Civil Rights Act of 1968

President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968 into law, opening housing opportunities to all Americans regardless of race, ethnicity, or creed. Widely considered the Fair Housing Act, the law enforced previous fair housing provisions and ensured federal protection.