America From Drake’s Quarterdeck

May 2025

1min read

A- A+

Sixteenth-century drawings from Sir Francis Drake’s voyages recorded important intelligence for England on Spanish America

August/September 1985

14 years ago By admin

Volume

36

Issue

5

Stories published from "August/September 1985"

In The Pit

Authored by: Abraham Lass

An old pro tells what it was like to play for the silents

East Meets Western

Authored by: Oswald Wynd

How the Japanese made sense of our silent movies

Landing at Tokyo Bay

Authored by: Vernon C. Squires

Two letters from a Navy lieutenant to his wife tell the story of the last hours of World War II.

Made In Philadelphia

Authored by: Kenneth Kinkel

Artfully composed still-life photographs from a rare 1871 album transform brushes, sponges, and stationery supplies into symbols of a proud, industrial society

Why We Didn’t Use Poison Gas in World War II

Authored by: Barton J. Bernstein

In a conflict that saw saturation-bombing, Auschwitz, and the atom bomb, poison gas was never used in the field. What prevented it?

In Praise of Pierce

Authored by: Elting E. Morison

He had all the right qualities. Only the time was wrong.

The Man Who Made the Yanquis Go Home

Authored by: David Haward Bain

Starting with 30 “liberated” rifles, Augusto Sandino forced American troops out of Nicaragua in 1933.

The Power of Homely Detail

Authored by: Wallace Stegner

Much has changed in Utah since World War II, but, outside of the metropolitan center in the Salt Lake Valley, the addiction to rural simplicity and the idea of home is still strong.

The Battle for Grant’s Tomb

Authored by: Neil Harris

It might seem that building a mausoleum to the great general would be a serenely melancholy task. Not at all. The bitter squabbles that surrounded the memorial set city against country and became a mirror of the forces that were straining turn-of-the-century America.

Roanoke Lost

Authored by: Karen Ordahl Kupperman

400 years ago, the first English settlers reached America. What followed was a string of disasters ending with the complete disappearance of a colony.

America From Drake’s Quarterdeck

Enjoy our work? Help us keep going.