Trusted Writing on History, Travel, and American Culture Since 1949
Classic Essays from Our Archives
The future President, who was an aide to Wilson, describes how the Allies bickered at the peace talks after World War I.
Ike's son, who served under Patton, shares his memories of "Ol' Blood and Guts"
The noted writer and educator recalls his boyhood in the West Virginia town of Piedmont.
The first of a three-part series on the Gen. "Vinegar Joe" Stillwell in China, by the Pulitzer Prize winning historian
Of all the Allied leaders, argues FDR's biographer, only Roosevelt saw clearly the shape of the new world order.
The former Secretary of State recalls his time as a "driver" in the Army before World War I.
Douglas Brinkley recalls his friend and colleague McCullough, ‘the dean of our nation’s historians’
Some of the first humans in North America butchered mammoth bones 37,000 years ago in what is now New Mexico.
We nearly lost our first president to the flu. The country could have died, too, by Gillian Brockell
In 1790, George Washington fell severely ill, threatening his life and the young nation he led.
Even after that milestone, millions of people — women and men alike — were still excluded from the vote, as many barriers to suffrage remained.
We can’t assume that all will be fine in the end, but history shows us that times of unrest are opportunities, too.
As the influenza pandemic swept across the United States in 1918 and 1919, masks took a role in political and cultural wars.
Texting exchange by two professors led to Frederick Douglass letter on Emancipation Memorial
While the play's creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, has delivered Hamilton his long-overdue public acclaim, many other historical figures are overlooked or represented in a less-than-flattering manner throughout the production.
They swept the issue under the rug, and even Thomas Jefferson realized that civil war was inevitable before he died on July 4, 1826. But history could have taken a different direction.
Benjamin Rush was a strange, or a strangely gifted, man, and one of the youngest—at 30—to sign the Declaration of Independence.
Black Americans began to celebrate Juneteenth in honor of when Texas - the last rebel state - officially abolished slavery.
The soul-searching about race prompted by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis has extended into how the history of racial persecution and prejudice is remembered.
How government commissions became alibis for inaction.
Condemnation of black violent resistance, and of black radicalism, is not a new phenomenon.
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Often thought to have been a weak President, Carter was strong-willed in doing what he thought was right, regardless of expediency or political fallout.
Rarely has the full story been told how a famed botanist, a pioneering female journalist, and First Lady Helen Taft battled reluctant bureaucrats to bring Japanese cherry trees to Washington.
In his Second Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln embodied leading in a time of polarization, political disagreement, and differing understandings of reality.
Native American peoples and the lands they possessed loomed large for Washington, from his first trips westward as a surveyor to his years as President.
A hundred years ago, America was rocked by riots, repression, and racial violence.
During Pres. Washington’s first term, an epidemic killed one tenth of all the inhabitants of Philadelphia, then the capital of the young United States.
Now a popular state park, the unassuming geological feature along the Illinois River has served as the site of centuries of human habitation and discovery.
The recent discovery of the hull of the battleship Nevada recalls her dramatic action at Pearl Harbor and ultimate revenge on D-Day as the first ship to fire on the Nazis.
Our research reveals that 19 artworks in the U.S. Capitol honor men who were Confederate officers or officials. What many of them said, and did, is truly despicable.
Here is probably the most wide-ranging look at Presidential misbehavior ever published in a magazine.
When Germany unleashed its blitzkreig in 1939, the U.S. Army was only the 17th largest in the world. FDR and Marshall had to build a fighting force able to take on the Nazis, against the wishes of many in Congress.
Roast pig, boiled rockfish, and apple pie were among the dishes George and Martha enjoyed during the holiday in 1797. Here are some actual recipes.