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Truth And Fiction

March 2023
1min read


As one historian precisely stated it, “Too often the savor of drama, the sense of reliving the past, the communicable thrill of a story to tell, is buried under the accretion of data. Yet history is inevitably dramatic. The very word comes from the same root as ‘story'; narration is of the essence.” This appeared nearly four decades ago in your publication, written by Dixon Wecter in his blast of fresh air titled “History and How to Write It.” As an amateur historian, I find that portions of his thoughts still make the hair on my neck stand up in excitement:

“To say also that the chronicle of great events calls for a touch of poetry is not to call down upon us showers of cadenced prose and purple passages, beloved of the swashbucklers and patrioteers. It means that powers of symmetry, proportion, aesthetic design, controlled emotion, even a knack of playfulness, and at high moments a certain unforced eloquence can be summoned into the service of truth.”

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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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