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Recent rehabilitation of this important site at the Gettysburg battlefield provides a much improved experience for visitors.

A Chinatown cook's fight to re-enter the U.S. in 1895 went up to the Supreme Court, which upheld his claim to birthright citizenship and guaranteed it for all through the 14th Amendment. 

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.

Some delegates at the Constitutional Convention wanted a strong executive, while others feared the American president might become a king.

In the Age of Discovery, maps held closely guarded secrets for the kings, adventurers, and merchants who first acquired them.

Classic Essays from Our Archives

Who Invented Scalping? | April 1977, Vol 28, No 3

By James Axtell

In recent years many voices—both Native-American and white—have questioned whether Indians did in fact invent scalping. What is the evidence?

scalping

Two Intimate Enemies | September 2000, Summer 2025, Vol 51, No 5

By Joseph J. Ellis

When John Adams was elected president, and Thomas Jefferson as vice president, each came to see the other as a traitor. Out of their enmity grew our modern political system.

jefferson adams

Growing Up Colored | Summer 2012, Summer 2025, Vol 70, No 3

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.

Henry Louis Gates and family

The Hawthornes In Paradise | December 1958, Summer 2025, Vol 10, No 1

By Malcolm Cowley

Nathaniel was poor and sunk in his solitude; Sophia seemed a hopeless invalid, but a late-flower love gave them at last “a perfect Eden.”

Hawthorne Peabody

“The Tide is Setting Strongly Against Us” | Winter 2010, Vol 59, No 4

By Edward L. Ayers

Lincoln’s bid for reelection in 1864 faced serious challenges from a popular opponent and a nation weary of war.

American Heritage Logo

A Yankee Among The War Lords | October 1970, Vol 21, No 6

By Barbara W. Tuchman

First of the Three Parts from STILWELL THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE IN CHINA 1911-1945

American Heritage Logo

    Today in History

  • First Nixon-Kennedy debate

    Chicago hosts the first televised presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon.

  • Battle of the Meuse-Argonne begins

    The Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the final Allied offensive of World War I, begins in the Argonne Forest in northern France. It would become the bloodiest battle in American history.

    More »

  • George Gershwin born

    American composer and pianist George Gershwin is born as Jacob Gershowitz in Brooklyn, New York.

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