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Trusted Writing on History, Travel, and American Culture Since 1949
January 2017
This Is Texas. Improbable event, incredible success, unprofitable loyalty, colossal hardship, heart-breaking failure went into its making. By turns expansively liberal and hidebound conservative (sometimes both at once), Texas is often as contradictory and unpredictable as its rivers : Canadian, Red, Sabine, Neches, Trinity, San Jacinto, Brazos, Colorado, Lavaca, Guadalupe, San Antonio, Nueces, Rio Grande. It can also be smartly calculated: Now and then somebody turns a crazy dream like a man-dug ship channel into profitable business for all concerned.
Texas has had its share of heroes, some native and some borrowed from other states. It has also originated or borrowed a notable gallery of shysters, spoilspirits, and gunmen. Extreme breeds averaged out in time; the state was built mainly by men for whom it was not necessary to erect either statues or scaffolds.
READERS, I HAVE THE honor of introducing this birthday banquet of essays on critical moments in our nation's story by some of its ablest current thinkers. I even get to follow on the distinguished heels of President John F. Kennedy; whose resounding words in the preceding article remind us of the vital importance of a citizenry knowing its history. It's worth noting that two of Kennedy's White House predecessors-Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson were published historians and presidents of the American Historical Association. History really does matter.
One of the astonishing things about celebrating American Heritage's 60th birthday is the realization that more than half a century has been added to the history that it so vividly relates--60 years filled with great events that some of these essays recall. Sometimes they are shattering and violent (Pearl Harbor and Vietnam), sometimes miraculous (landing on the Moon and curing an age-old scourge), sometimes heartening (electing an African American president), and always transformative. Sixty years is more than a full quarter of our 220-year history under the Constitution.
"My system has changed - no more war, no more conquests," Napoleon announced after his escape from Elba in 1815. In the space of
what is now known as the Hundred Days, the deposed French emperor was to demonstrate that nothing had changed. Only forty-six, he
still possessed the ambition that made Europe quake at the news of his return to France, the magnetism that made men offering undying
devotion swarm to his side, and the military genius that could plan, execute, and very nearly win a brilliant campaign against vastly
superior odds.
The battle that ended the career of the greatest conqueror of modern times was Waterloo. National Book Award winner J. Christopher
Herold, a lifelong Napoleon scholar, tells the story of Waterloo with special emphasis on the emperor's role. But it is also the story of the
Duke of Wellington, who led a mixed force of British, Belgian, Dutch, and Hanoverian troops in a masterly defensive operation.
Like all military contests, Waterloo was a series of blunders and misunderstandings mixed with acts of heroism, timidity, and endurance.
On August 6 and 9, 1945, in the last significant blows of World War II, American B-29 bombers dropped atomic warheads on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Within a week, the Japanese surrendered. The war was over, but the Atomic Age was just beginning.
Here, from journalist and historian Michael Blow, is the dramatic story of America's Manhattan Project, which produced the world's first atomic weapons.
As the American frontier moved westward and wildlife declined, John James Audubon drove himself to record its wonders. Here, in this
short-form book, is his story.
The American Heritage History of the American Revolution is the complete chronicle of the Revolutionary War told in full detail. Lancaster
starts his story with an examination of Colonial society and the origins of the quarrel with England. He details the ensuing battles and
military campaigns from Lexington and Concord to the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, as well as the tense political and social
situation of the new nation.