''American Heritage'' is a magazine dedicated to covering the

history of the United States The history of the lands that became the United States began with the arrival of Settlement of the Americas, the first people in the Americas around 15,000 BC. Native American cultures in the United States, Numerous indigenous cultures formed ...

for a mainstream readership. Until 2007, the magazine was published by Forbes.Grosvenor, Edwin S.
"Editor's Letter," ''American Heritage'', Winter 2008. Since that time,

Edwin S. Grosvenor Edwin S. Grosvenor is a writer, photographer, and President and Editor-in-Chief of ''American Heritage''. He has published nine books and is best known for writing on his great-grandfather, Alexander Graham Bell, including two books and several ma ...

has been its editor and publisher. Print publication was suspended early in 2013, but the magazine relaunched in digital format with the Summer 2017 issue after a Kickstarter campaign raised $31,203 from 587 backers. The 70th Anniversary issue of the magazine (Winter 2020) on the subject "What Makes America Great?" includes essays by such historians as

Fergus Bordewich Fergus M. Bordewich (born November 1, 1947) is an American writer, popular historian, and editor living in San Francisco. He is the author of eight nonfiction books, including a memoir, and an illustrated children's book. Biography Bordewich w ...

Douglas Brinkley Douglas Brinkley (born December 14, 1960) is an American author, Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities, and professor of history at Rice University. Brinkley is the history commentator for CNN, Presidential Historian for the New York Histori ...

, Joseph Ellis, and

David S. Reynolds David S. Reynolds (born 1948) is an American literary critic, biographer, and historian who has written about American literature and culture. He is the author or editor of fifteen books, on the Civil War era—including figures such as Walt W ...

History

From 1947 to 1949 the American Association for State and Local History published a

house organ A house organ (also variously known an in-house magazine, in-house publication, house journal, shop paper, plant paper, or employee magazine) is a magazine or periodical A periodical literature (also called a periodical publication or simpl ...

, ''American Heritage: A Journal of Community History''. In September 1949, AASLH launched the magazine with broader scope for the general public, but keeping certain features geared to educators and historical societies. In 1954, AASLH sold the magazine to a quartet of writers and editors from Time, Inc. including James Parton, Oliver Jensen,

Joseph J. Thorndike Joseph Jacobs Thorndike (July 29, 1913 – November 22, 2005) was an American editor and writer.Bruce Catton, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of the Civil War. They formed the American Heritage Publishing Company and introduced the hardcover, 120-page advertising-free "magazine" with Volume 6, Number 1 in December 1954. Though, in essence, an entirely new magazine, the publishers kept the volume numbering because the previous incarnation had been indexed in the ''

Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature ''The Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature'' is a reference guide to recently published articles in periodical magazines and scholarly journals, organized by article subject. ''The Readers' Guide'' has been published regularly since 1901 by ...

''. Each year begins in December and continues through the following October, published every other month. For example, Volume XXV issues are December 1973, February 1974, April 1974, June 1974, August 1974, and October 1974. December 1974 begins Volume XXVI. Bruce Catton remained with the magazine for 25 years until his death in 1979 and published over 100 essays. He warned historians against "regarding the past so fondly we are unable to get it in proper focus, and we see virtues that were not there.” In 1964, David McCullough began his writing career as an editor and writer for ''American Heritage'', which he sometimes calls "my graduate school". McCullough wrote numerous articles for the magazine. He turned his article for the June 1966 issue on the Johnstown Flood, ''Run for Your Lives'', into a full-length book titled, '' The Johnstown Flood''. When it became an unexpected bestseller, McCullough left the magazine in 1968 to commit full-time to writing. Later ''American Heritage'' articles by McCullough on the transcontinental railroad and Harry Truman also became bestselling books. McGraw-Hill purchased the American Heritage Publishing Company in 1969. Samuel P. Reed acquired the magazine in 1978. By 1980, costs made the hardcover version prohibitive for a regular subscription. Subscribers could choose the new regular newsstand high-quality softcover or the "Collector's Edition", even plusher and thicker than the previous hardcover. Each is usually about 80 pages and has more "relevant" features and shorter articles than in the early years, but the scope and direction and purpose had not changed. Forbes bought the magazine in 1986. On May 17, 2007, the magazine, published on a bimonthly basis, announced that it had stopped publication, at least temporarily, with the April/May 2007 issue." On October 27, 2007,

, purchased the magazine from Forbes for $500,000 in cash and $10 million in subscription liabilities. Grosvenor, who serves as president and editor-in-chief, is the former editor of the fine arts magazine, ''Portfolio''. Grosvenor was also the editor of the literary magazine, ''Current Books'', and magazines for Marriott and Hyatt Hotels. He was also the CEO of KnowledgeMax, Inc., an online bookseller. After suspending print publication in 2013, the magazine relaunched digitally in 2017 with a new website and subscriber management system.

For a magazine that has lasted seven decades, its way of covering history has changed much over the years. Each issue is still an eclectic collection of articles on the people, places, and events from the entire history of the United States. Today, there is mention of television shows and Web sites, and a greater diversity of articles such as Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates' recent article, "Growing Up Colored," about life as a young boy in segregated West Virginia. Recent content has included a special 70th Anniversary issue on "What Makes America Great" (Winter 2020) and an issue on the history of

gun control Gun control, or firearms regulation, is the set of laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, or use of firearms by civilians. Most countries have a restrictive firearm guiding policy, with on ...

with essays by historian

Joseph J. Ellis Joseph John-Michael Ellis III (born July 18, 1943) is an American historian whose work focuses on the lives and times of the founders of the United States of America. '' American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson'' won a National Boo ...

, law professor Adam Winkler, and gun rights advocate

Robert A. Levy Robert A. Levy (born 1941) is the chairman of the American libertarian Cato Institute as well as a director of the Institute of Justice, and the organizer and financier behind ''District of Columbia v. Heller'', as well as Heller's co-counsel, ...

. Some historians have criticized the magazine for what they say is a lack of seriousness. Reviewing David McCullough's book on John Adams in ''The New Republic'', Sean Wilentz stated that during the 1950s, " ernardDeVoto's style of seriousness aseclipsed by the more journalistic and sentimentally descriptive style of ''American Heritage'', whose influence is everywhere." Wilentz claimed that McCullough and film maker

Ken Burns Kenneth Lauren Burns (born July 29, 1953) is an American filmmaker known for his documentary film, documentary films and television series, many of which chronicle United States, American History of the United States, history and Culture of the ...

followed the ''American Heritage'' style: "popular history as passive nostalgic spectacle" marching "under the banner of 'narrative'". The magazine's editor at the time,

Richard Snow Richard F. Snow (born 1947) is an American historian and writer of novels and short stories. Biography Snow is the author of the 1981 novel, ''The Burning'', a fictionalized account of the Hinckley, Minnesota, fire of 1894. His other works in ...

, replied that "this magazine has never taken an overly sentimentalized or simplistic view of the past" and that ''American Heritage'' is "a magazine addressed to a lay audience and thus it has the usual fixtures—columns, picture stories, and so forth—and a variety of topics, some of greater consequence than others... but that it publishes many historians "whose work nobody has ever called simplistic, or sentimental, or undemanding. Numerous articles in ''American Heritage'' have later been expanded into bestselling books, including: *

Barbara W. Tuchman Barbara Wertheim Tuchman (; January 30, 1912 – February 6, 1989) was an American historian and author. She won the Pulitzer Prize twice, for ''The Guns of August'' (1962), a best-selling history of the prelude to and the first month of World ...

's three-part series on Gen. Joseph Stilwell in 1970, beginning with "A Yankee Among The War Lords", that was later published as ''

Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45 Stilwell or Stillwell may refer to: People * Arthur Stilwell (1859–1928), Kansas City Southern Railway founder * Bill Stilwell, Author and naturalist, author of three national best-sellers * Frank Stilwell (1856–1882), Old West outlaw * Frank ...

'', which won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1972. * Walter Lord's 1955 article "Maiden Voyage: The first and last trip of the 'unsinkable' ''Titanic''", that became the bestselling '' A Night to Remember'', which was made into a movie. * Laura Hillenbrand's 1998 article, "Four Good Legs Between Us", that became the 2001 book, '' Seabiscuit: An American Legend'' and the 2003 film, ''Seabiscuit'', which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. In addition to running four to six articles, ''American Heritages regular features include * "History News" - news and happenings in museums, historic sites, movies * "Heritage Travel" - guides to what to see in historic American areas * "Now on the Web" - what's being written relating to history around the Web * "Letters to the Editor" - readers' letters * "My Brush With History" - readers' own stories about incidents in their lives that have some interesting historical significance

Other media

During the early 1960s, ''American Heritage'' sponsored a series of popular military board games produced by the Milton Bradley Company. Beginning in 1973, and presumably as part of the then-current national lead-up to the

Bicentennial __NOTOC__ A bicentennial or bicentenary is the two-hundredth anniversary of a part, or the celebrations thereof. It may refer to: Europe *French Revolution bicentennial, commemorating the 200th anniversary of 14 July 1789 uprising, celebrated ...

, ''American Heritage'' teamed up with producer David L. Wolper for a series of four hour-long television specials (broadcast every few months between late 1973 and early 1975) based on events and people in American history, in documentary-like filmed dramatizations with actors taking the roles of historic figures, and key events re-enacted. The specials, sponsored by Texaco, were narrated by actor Cliff Robertson and broadcast on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

''The American Heritage Specials''

* ''The World Turned Upside Down'' (

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

and the

Battle of Yorktown The Siege of Yorktown, also known as the Battle of Yorktown, the surrender at Yorktown, or the German battle (from the presence of Germans in all three armies), beginning on September 28, 1781, and ending on October 19, 1781, at Yorktown, Virgi ...

); originally broadcast November 27, 1973 * ''Lincoln: Trial by Fire'' ( Abraham Lincoln, George McClellan and the Civil War); originally broadcast January 20, 1974 * ''The Yanks are Coming'' (General

John J. Pershing General of the Armies John Joseph Pershing (September 13, 1860 – July 15, 1948), nicknamed "Black Jack", was a senior United States Army officer. He served most famously as the commander of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) on the Wes ...

and World War I); originally broadcast April 22, 1974 * ''The Honorable Sam Houston'' (

Sam Houston Samuel Houston (, ; March 2, 1793 – July 26, 1863) was an American general and statesman who played an important role in the Texas Revolution. He served as the first and third president of the Republic of Texas and was one of the first two i ...

and his failed efforts to keep Texas out of the Confederacy); originally broadcast January 22, 1975

Editors

* Bruce Catton (1954-1959) * Oliver Jensen (1959-1976) * Alvin M. Josephy, Jr. (1976-1978) * Geoffrey Ward (1978-1982) * Byron Dobell (1982-1989) *

(1989-2007) *

(2007–present)

Notable staff and contributors

Daniel Aaron Daniel Aaron (August 4, 1912 – April 30, 2016) was an American writer and academic who helped found the Library of America.Cromie, William J., Ken Gewertz, Corydon Ireland, and Alvin Powell"Honorary degrees awarded at Commencement's Morning Ex ...

Elie Abel Elie Abel (October 17, 1920 – July 22, 2004) was a Canadians, Canadian-Americans, American journalist, author and academic. Early life Born in Montreal, Quebec, Abel received a Bachelor of Arts degree from McGill University in 1941 and a Maste ...

Dean Acheson Dean Gooderham Acheson (pronounced ; April 11, 1893October 12, 1971) was an American statesman and lawyer. As the 51st U.S. Secretary of State, he set the foreign policy of the Harry S. Truman administration from 1949 to 1953. He was also Truman ...

* Stephen Ambrose * Cleveland Amory * Kevin Baker *

Bernard Bailyn Bernard Bailyn (September 10, 1922 – August 7, 2020) was an American historian, author, and academic specializing in U.S. Colonial and Revolutionary-era History. He was a professor at Harvard University from 1953. Bailyn won the Pulitzer Pri ...

* Carlos Baker * Russell Baker * Michael Beschloss * David W. Blight *

Alan Brinkley Alan Brinkley (June 2, 1949 – June 16, 2019) was an American political historian who taught for over 20 years at Columbia University. He was the Allan Nevins Professor of History until his death. From 2003 to 2009, he was University Provost. ...

* Bruce Catton *

Sir Arthur C. Clarke Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 191719 March 2008) was an English science-fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film '' 2001: A Spac ...

Henry Steele Commager Henry Steele Commager (1902–1998) was an American historian. As one of the most active and prolific liberal intellectuals of his time, with 40 books and 700 essays and reviews, he helped define modern liberalism in the United States. In the 19 ...

* Malcolm Cowley * Tom D. Crouch *

Paul Dickson Paul Dickson may refer to: *Paul Dickson (writer) (born 1939), American writer *Paul Dickson (American football) Paul Serafin Dickson (February 26, 1937 – June 7, 2011) was an American football defensive tackle in the National Football League ...

* John Dos Passos * John Eisenhower * Joseph Ellis * Thomas Fleming * James Thomas Flexner * Eric Foner *

John A. Garraty John Arthur Garraty (July 4, 1920 – December 19, 2007) was an American historian and biographer. He specialized largely in American political and economic history. Garraty earned an undergraduate degree at Brooklyn College in 1941 and complete ...

Henry Louis Gates Jr. Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. (born September 16, 1950) is an American literary critic, professor, historian, and filmmaker, who serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African Ame ...

* John Steele Gordon * Annette Gordon-Reed *

T. A. Heppenheimer Thomas A. Heppenheimer (January 1, 1947 – September 9, 2015) was a major space advocate and researcher in planetary science, aerospace engineering, and celestial mechanics. His books are on the recommended reading list of the National Space Soc ...

Harold Holzer Harold Holzer (born February 5, 1949) is a scholar of Abraham Lincoln and the political culture of the American Civil War Era. He serves as director of Hunter College's Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute. Holzer previously spent twenty-thr ...

* Herbert Hoover * A.E. Dick Howard * James Horn *

Jane Kamensky Jane Kamensky, an American historian, is a professor of history at Harvard University. She is also the Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Director of the Schlesinger Library. Kamensky graduated from Yale University in 1985 with a B.A., and in ...

* John F. Kennedy * Edward G. Lengel * John Lukacs * Gerard Magliocca *

Pauline Maier Pauline Alice Maier (née Rubbelke; April 27, 1938 – August 12, 2013) was a revisionist historian of the American Revolution, whose work also addressed the late colonial period and the history of the United States after the end of the Revolut ...

* David McCullough * James M. McPherson *

Peter S. Onuf Peter S. Onuf is an American historian and professor known for his work on President of the United States, U.S. President Thomas Jefferson and Federalism. In 1989, he was named the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Professor of the University o ...

Nathaniel Philbrick Nathaniel Philbrick (born June 11, 1956) is an American author of history, winner of the National Book Award, and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His maritime history, '' In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex,'' which tells ...

Jeffrey Rosen Jeffrey Rosen may refer to: * Jeffrey Rosen (legal academic) (born 1964), U.S. academic and commentator on legal affairs * Jeffrey Rosen (businessman), American billionaire businessman * Jeffrey A. Rosen (born 1958), U.S. lawyer who served as Depu ...

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Arthur Meier Schlesinger Jr. (; born Arthur Bancroft Schlesinger; October 15, 1917 – February 28, 2007) was an American historian, social critic, and public intellectual. The son of the influential historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. and a spe ...

Peter Schweizer Peter Franz Schweizer (born November 24, 1964) is an American political consultant and writer. He is the president of the Government Accountability Institute (GAI), senior editor-at-large of far-right media organization Breitbart News, and a form ...

* Robert A. M. Stern *

Jean Strouse Jean Strouse (born 1945) is an American biographer, cultural administrator, and critic. She is best known for her biographies of diarist Alice James and financier J. Pierpont Morgan. Strouse was an editorial assistant at ''The New York Review of ...

* Alan Taylor *

Barbara Tuchman Barbara Wertheim Tuchman (; January 30, 1912 – February 6, 1989) was an American historian and author. She won the Pulitzer Prize twice, for ''The Guns of August'' (1962), a best-selling history of the prelude to and the first month of World ...

* Steven Waldman * Geoffrey Ward *

Bernard Weisberger Bernard Allen Weisberger (born August 15, 1922) is an American historian.Encyclopaedia Judaica, vol. 8, "Historians," p.550, 1971 (2nd ed.) Weisberger taught American history at several universities including the University of Chicago, Wayne Stat ...

* Gordon S. Wood *

Joshua M. Zeitz Joshua Michael Zeitz (born 1974) is an American historian. He is the author of several books on American political and social history and has written for the ''New York Times'', ''Washington Post'', ''Los Angeles Times'', ''The New Republic'', '' ...

Awards

''American Heritage'' has been the finalist or winner of several National Magazine Awards, especially between 1985 and 1993: *1975, Finalist, National Magazine Award (Visual Excellence), Frank H. Johnson, editor *1985, Winner, National Magazine Award (General Excellence), Byron Dobell, editor Id., For the April/May, June/July, and December issues. *1985, Winner, National Magazine Award (Single-Topic Issue), Byron Dobell, editor *1986, Finalist, National Magazine Award (General Excellence), Byron Dobell, editor *1986, Finalist, National Magazine Award (Design), Byron Dobell, editor, Beth Whitaker, art director *1987, Finalist, National Magazine Award (General Excellence), Byron Dobell, editor *1988, Finalist, National Magazine Award (General Excellence), Byron Dobell, editor *1989, Winner, National Magazine Award (General Excellence), Byron Dobell, editor *1990, Finalist, National Magazine Award (Design), Byron Dobell, editor, Theodore Kalomirakis, art director *1990, Finalist, National Magazine Award (General Excellence), Byron Dobell, editor *1991, Finalist, National Magazine Award (General Excellence), Byron Dobell, editor *1993, Finalist, National Magazine Award (General Excellence), Richard F. Snow, editor *1999, Finalist, National Magazine Award (General Excellence), Richard F. Snow, editor Id., For the May/June, November, and December issues.

Samuel Eliot Morison Award

In 1976, the American Heritage Publishing Company founded and sponsored an award called the Samuel Eliot Morison Award, named for the historian Samuel Eliot Morison. It had the goal of annually honoring an American author whose work shows "that good history is literature as well as high scholarship." The first award was presented on September 28, 1977, by

Henry A. Kissinger Henry Alfred Kissinger (; ; born Heinz Alfred Kissinger, May 27, 1923) is a German-born American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the preside ...

at the

Pierpont Morgan Library The Morgan Library & Museum, formerly the Pierpont Morgan Library, is a museum and research library in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It is situated at 225 Madison Avenue, between 36th Street to the south and 37th ...

, valued at $5,000. It ran for two years. * 1976

Joseph P. Lash Joseph Paul Lash (December 2, 1909 – August 22, 1987) was an American radical political activist, journalist, and writer. A close friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, Lash won both the Pulitzer Prize for BiographyDavid McCullough, '' The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:American Heritage (Magazine) 1947 establishments in the United States 2013 disestablishments in the United States Bimonthly magazines published in the United States Defunct magazines published in the United States History magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1947 Magazines disestablished in 2013 Magazines published in Baltimore Quarterly magazines published in the United States Rockville, Maryland