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Letter to the Editor

No More Crises, Please

March 2023
1min read

I think it's great that American Heritage is stirring, and was pleased to get an email about the latest issue. But I was less enthusiastic about the topic.  

Though I understand the idea of "America in Crisis" may have been to show we've been through tough times before (and we'll get through these tough times as well), but in general I just can't take any more crisis. There has been so much debilitating destruction, capped by coronavirus.  I sit at home, doing my best to avoid the news, fed up with non-stop crisis.

--Larry Herbst, Pasadena, CA

 

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Stories published from "Spring 2020"

Authored by: Timothy Gay

In 1942, over a quarter of a million ordinary citizens volunteered to help defend our country as Nazi submarines terrorized the East Coast and Caribbean waters, sinking fuel tankers and cargo ships with near impunity.

Authored by: Alan Greenspan

Shortly after the author became Chairman of the Federal Reserve in 1987, the stock market plummeted 22 percent in one day.

Authored by: James M. McPherson

Only hours after being sworn in, Lincoln faced the most momentous decision in presidential history

Authored by: John M. Barry

Toward the end of World War I, American doctors fought an invisible enemy on the home front — a pandemic that would kill more people than any other outbreak of disease in human history.

Authored by: Paul Dickson

The nation was torn apart by disastrous riots in a hundred cities and towns, with lasting results.

Authored by: Fergus M. Bordewich

Histories written about the nation's greatest crisis focus on Lincoln and the military campaigns. But an intriguing group of characters in Congress also played a major role, advising and prodding the President.

Authored by: Stephen Fried

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.

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Famous writers including Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and the Alcotts turned Sleepy Hollow Cemetery into our country’s first conservation project.

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.

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

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.

Born during Jim Crow, Belle da Costa Greene perfected the art of "passing" while working for one of the most powerful men in America.