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Featured Essays
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.
Our Founders profoundly transformed the way people participate in government.
America 250!
John Dickinson: Forgotten Founder | Fall 2025, Vol 70, No 4
By Jane E. CalvertDickinson 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.
How One Man Launched a Revolution | Spring 2018 , Vol 63, No 1
By Christine GibsonThomas Paine's Common Sense helped Americans "decide upon the propriety of separation,” as George Washington said.
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.
With Little Less Than Savage Fury | Fall 2010, Vol 60, No 3
By Thomas B. AllenAmerica’s first civil war took place during the Revolution, an ultra-violent, family-splitting, and often vindictive conflict between "patriots" and loyalists.
Big Guns For Washington | April 1955, Vol 6, No 3
By Clay PerryHow tough Henry Knox hauled a train of cannon over wintry trails to help drive the British away from Boston
Classic Essays from the Archives
Range Practice | Februrary 1968, Summer 2025, Vol 70, No 3
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.
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.
Did Castro Okay the Kennedy Assassination? | Winter 2009, Vol 58, No 6
By Gus RussoIncriminating new evidence has come to light in KGB files and the authors' interviews of former Cuban intelligence officers which indicates that Fidel Castro probably knew in advance of Oswald's intent to kill JFK.
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