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Henry Steele Commager

A longtime member of the editorial advisory board of AMERICAN HERITAGE, Henry Steele Commager (1902-1998) taught at New York University, Columbia, and Amherst College, and authored more than forty books. He first gained attention in 1930 as co-author, with Harvard historian Samuel Eliot Morison, of The Growth of the American Republic, which became a standard textbook for decades. His anthology Documents of American History (1938) remained a widely used collection of primary sources for many years. Among his forty books and 700 essays and reviews, his principal scholarly work was The American Mind: An Interpretation of American Thought and Character since the 1880's (1950)

Articles by this Author

We have come a long way from the philosophy of the Enlightenment...a shift that represents a retreat rather than an advance, argues the noted historian.
By no means, said W. H. Prescott. Absolutely, said Lord Acton. The question remains hard—and intriguing
A distinguished historian describes how America, suddenly thrust into nationhood without a history of its own, set out to create one. And what a splendid achievement it was!
When he offered Congress his library, his foes charged that it was full of books which “never ought to be read” and probably ought to be burned
A leading American historian challenges the long-entrenched interpretation originated by the late Charles A. Beard