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Coming Up In American Heritage

April 2023
1min read


Inventing sex

The sexual revolution seems a part of the gale that blew through the country in the 1960s, but in fact all its catalysts were in place by the end of the fifties. Like every revolution, it tapped into great historical tides, but also like every revolution, it was the work of individual men and women. And so when David Halberstam came to chart its course in his big new book on the 1950s, he chose to do so through the biographies of some of those who brought it about. We offer a preview.

Ruffian

“There was a miraculous and all-conquering horse,” writes Gene Smith, “a filly, not a colt, who in nine out of ten races broke or equaled speed records that had stood for years and decades.” What made her great destroyed her, and millions saw her brought down at the peak of her glory. “She had done what no horse had ever done and was buried where no horse was ever buried.” Smith recalls the heartbreaking epic of the greatest filly—and perhaps the greatest horse—that ever lived.

Friends at twilight

Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were bitter enemies for years after the Revolution. But then in their last years they began an extraordinary reconciliatory correspondence that defined them—and us—as Americans.

Plus…

Comics that were good for you: the rise and fall of Classics Illustrated … 150 years of the Oregon Trail… and, with a vernal generosity that matches nature’s own, more.

We hope you enjoy our work.

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Stories published from "April 1993"

Authored by: Wayne Fields

THIS SPRING, THE 250TH ANNIVERSARY OF JEFFERSON’S BIRTH, RESTORATION BEGINS ON POPLAR FOREST, WHICH HE ONCE CALLED “THE BEST DWELLING HOUSE IN THE STATE, EXCEPT THAT OF MONTICELLO.” WHILE THE WORK PROGESSES, THE HOUSE IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC, AND ITS GHOSTLY EMPTINESS HEIGHTENS THE SENSE IF ITS ORIGINAL OCCUPANT.

Authored by: The Editors

Watershed of the Nation

Authored by: The Editors

The Songs of Cole Porter

Authored by: The Editors

Cole Porter in the 1930s

Authored by: Henry Wiencek

After half a millennium we scarcely feel the presence of Spain in what is now the United States. But it is all around us.

Authored by: Michael S. Durham

Retracing the Pioneer Trail in Mormon Utah

Authored by: William E. Carnahan

The U.S. Capitol stands where it always has, but the columns that originally held it up have become a hauntingly beautiful monument somewhere else

Authored by: Vance Bourjaily

A novelist joins his ancestor on a trip West and discovers in her daily travails an intimate view of a tremendous national migration

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