December 2023

1 “With Malice Toward None” by Jon Meacham

In his Second Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln embodied leading in a time of polarization, political disagreement, and clashing understandings of reality.

2 The Secret Plans to Invade Japan, by David Dean Barrett

U.S. military leaders drew up elaborate plans to invade Japan, with estimates of American casualties ranging as high as two to four million, given the terrible losses at Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

3 Why Did Ruby Kill Oswald? by Burt W. Griffin

Sixty years ago, Jack Ruby shot Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. What was his motive? The Warren Commission lawyer who investigated Ruby reveals the killer’s state of mind.

4 Who Really Was FDR? by Derek Leebaert

Editor's Note: Benjamin L. Carp is a professor of history at Brooklyn College and the author of a definitive book about the Tea Party, Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party and the Making of America and Rebels Rising: Cities and the American Revolution.

Samuel C. O. Holt, the long-time chairman of American Heritage Publishing, passed away on October 11, 2023. He was the first to join me as a director and investor to save the 60-year-old magazine in 2007, after Forbes suspended its publication.

Sam was a legend in the broadcasting industry. He helped to create and define the public broadcasting system in the U.S. as the programming director of PBS for its first seven years. He was also the author of a landmark report that outlined strategies for creating the National Public Radio network and later served as its head of programming. 

“If you now work in public radio, Sam Holt made your job possible,” wrote Ken Mills, Director of the Public Radio Oral History Project, recently. “In fact, he helped make the entire public radio system possible.”

If you are like me of a certain age, you remember exactly where you were, what you were doing, and how you felt when you heard the news 60 years ago: John F. Kennedy, our vibrant, young 35th president had been assassinated in Dallas, Texas.