March 2026

Editor's Note:

In February 1944, a frail but upbeat Franklin Roosevelt traveled to Crimea in what was then the Soviet Union for a meeting of the “Big Three.” In discussing the final defeat of Germany and the postwar reorganization of Europe, FDR would test the limits of his wartime friendships at Yalta as he met for what would prove to be the last time. with Churchill and Stalin.

It was Winston Churchill’s opinion that if the Allies had spent ten years on research, they could not have picked a worse place to meet than Yalta. In truth, Yalta itself was a casualty of war. Between the rugged mountains and the Black Sea, it was warmer than most of the surrounding region and had once been deliberately maintained as an unspoiled wilderness. There, Russian czars and the Russian gentry had come to relax, to enjoy its bright sun and warm sea breezes; its aura of health along the coastal waters and its emerald waters in the little harbor of the imperial estate; its groves of cypresses, orchards, and vineyards; and its flowering fruit trees, lilacs, and wisteria. 

Editor’s Note:  Christopher Cox has served as a White House counsel, the fifth-ranking leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, and chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Subsequently, while working as a corporate attorney, consultant, and board member, Cox spent 14 years researching and writing a formidable new biography, Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn, published by Simon & Schuster. Mr. Cox adapted and supplemented portions of the book in the following essay. 

Editor's Note: Eugene Meyer is the Editor of B’nai B’rith Magazine and was a long-time reporter for the Washington Post. Portions of this review appeared in the Washington Independent Review of Books, a nonprofit website dedicated to book reviews and writing about the world of books since 2011.

James Deering received a serious medical diagnosis in 1912. Doctors told the 52-year-old industrialist he had pernicious anemia and needed to avoid Chicago winters for his health. So, searching for a place in a warm, tropical climate, Deering purchased 180 acres in south Miami and began construction of his architectural fantasy, Villa Vizcaya, where he could display his vast collection of art and create a formal Renaissance garden. Vizcaya would evolve into one of South Florida's most popular attractions and is designated a National Historic Landmark.

Editor’s Note: Joseph Connor is a Contributing Editor for American Heritage, member of the Supreme Court bar, and former prosecutor at the Morris County (NJ) Prosecutor's Office. He handled many habeas corpus cases and came to realize how important a safeguard is that check against arbitrary detention. Mr. Connor earned a B.A. in History at Fairleigh Dickinson and a J.D. at Rutgers Law School.

In April 1861, Abraham Lincoln faced the most severe crisis an American president had ever confronted. Seven southern states had seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States, and on April 12 they bombarded Fort Sumter, South Carolina. Three days later, Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to suppress the rebellion. The Union needed to rush troops to Washington, D.C., to defend the capital. Once Virginia left the Union on April 17, 1861, only the Potomac River stood between the seat of Federal government and rebel territory.

Editor’s Note: Raymond Arsenault is a professor of history emeritus at the University of South Florida and the author of the first full-length biography of the Civil Rights leader and Congressman, John Lewis: In Search of the Beloved Community, in which parts of this essay appeared. It was a New Yorker “Best Book of 2024” Selection.

Editor’s Note: Edward J. Larson is a professor at Pepperdine University and previously taught at the University of Georgia, Yale, and Stanford, among other universities. His many books include Summer for the Gods, winner of the 1998 Pulitzer Prize in History, and most recently Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Matters, in which portions of this essay appeared.

In their relatively comfortable winter quarters in Boston, the British were largely ignorant of George Washington’s audacious plan to force them out of Boston. On the other hand, patriot leaders alerted by informants always seemed to know precisely what the British would do before they did it, such as the prior April when the British marched on Concord to try to capture the patriot armory, or two months later when the British took the highlands around Bunker Hill.