Features
Deliverance
Family tragedy prompted young Teddy Roosevelt to answer the call of the Wild West and shaped the man who would be president
by H.W. Brands
Supremely Gothic
A phantasmagorical house in Connecticut was once America’s capital of patriotic display
by William L. Hamilton
Lincoln’s Feisty Foil: Thaddeus Stevens
The abolitionist immortalized by Spielberg fought even harder for black rights after Lincoln died
by Peter Carlson
Mind of a Conquistador
Hernando de Soto’s insatiable hunger for glory proved to be his downfall when he set out to conquer La Florida in 1539
by David Ewing Duncan
Grand Theft History
Con artists who pilfer priceless documents and artifacts from public archives and libraries cheat us out of our heritage
by Michael G. Williams
Super Storm
A battle-tested humanitarian chronicles a perilous river quest during the Great Flood of 1884
by Clara Barton
Departments
Letters
Gazette
Archaeologists hit paydirt on eve of Battle of Fredericksburg sesquicentennial; crystals add millions of years to age of Grand Canyon; New Orleans digitizes colonial documents; Marvel unleashes zombie presidents
The Big Picture
America’s busy bees
We’ve Been Here Before
Like David Petraeus, Alexander Hamilton fell for a comely lady
The First
Chain restaurant
Details
The Gross Clinic
Encounter
Hermann Göring (and his lion) preen for Charles Lindbergh
Interview
Economic historian Michael Lind reveals how America can remain a Land of Promise
Letter From American History
Stolen treasures
Reviews
Joseph P. Kennedy is The Patriarch; interstate highways provide a perfect escape route for a Killer on the Road; civil rights–era chronicler Taylor Branch relives The King Years
From America’s Attic
Plutonium-239
