''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 the first people in the Americas around 15,000 BC. Numerous indigenous cultures formed, and many saw transformations in the 16th century away from more densely ...

for a mainstream readership. Until 2007, the magazine was published by

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

.Grosvenor, Edwin S.
"Editor's Letter," ''American Heritage'', Winter 2008. Since that time, Edwin S. Grosvenor 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 Histor ...

, 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 and founding editor Bruce Catton, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...

. 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 McGraw Hill is an American educational publishing company and one of the "big three" educational publishers that publishes educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education. The company also publishes refere ...

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.

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, Edwin S. Grosvenor, 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 Marriott may refer to: People *Marriott (surname) Corporations * Marriott Corporation, founded as Hot Shoppes, Inc. in 1927; split into Marriott International and Host Marriott Corporation in 1993 * Marriott International, international hot ...

and

Hyatt Hotels Hyatt Hotels Corporation, commonly known as Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, is an American multinational hospitality company headquartered in the Riverside Plaza area of Chicago that manages and franchises luxury and business hotels, resorts, and vaca ...

. 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 onl ...

with essays by historian Joseph J. Ellis, law professor

Adam Winkler Adam Winkler (born July 25, 1967) is the Connell Professor of law at the UCLA School of Law. He is the author of '' We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights''Winkler, Adam (2018) WW Norton. ''and Gunfight: The Battle ov ...

, and gun rights advocate Robert A. Levy. 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 films and television series, many of which chronicle American history and culture. His work is often produced in association with WETA-TV and/or th ...

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, 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 Worl ...

's three-part series on Gen.

Joseph Stilwell Joseph Warren "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell (March 19, 1883 – October 12, 1946) was a United States Army general who served in the China Burma India Theater during World War II. An early American popular hero of the war for leading a column walking ...

in 1970, beginning with "A Yankee Among The War Lords", that was later published as '' Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45'', 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 Milton Bradley Company or simply Milton Bradley (MB) was an American board game manufacturer established by Milton Bradley in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1860. In 1920, it absorbed the game production of McLoughlin Brothers, formerly the ...

. 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 Texaco, Inc. ("The Texas Company") is an American oil brand owned and operated by Chevron Corporation. Its flagship product is its fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owned the Havoline motor oil brand. Texaco was an independent company unt ...

, were narrated by actor Cliff Robertson and broadcast on ABC.

''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 ...

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 Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation throu ...

, George McClellan and the

); originally broadcast January 20, 1974 * ''The Yanks are Coming'' (General John J. Pershing and

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

); 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 Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

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) * Richard Snow (1989-2007) * Edwin S. Grosvenor (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 Canadian- 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 Master of Science in journ ...

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 Truma ...

* 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 Pr ...

* 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 Space ...

* Henry Steele Commager *

Malcolm Cowley Malcolm Cowley (August 24, 1898 – March 27, 1989) was an American writer, editor, historian, poet, and literary critic. His best known works include his first book of poetry, ''Blue Juniata'' (1929), his lyrical memoir, ''Exile's Return' ...

* Tom D. Crouch * Paul Dickson * John Dos Passos * John Eisenhower * Joseph Ellis * Thomas Fleming * James Thomas Flexner * Eric Foner * John A. Garraty *

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 Amer ...

* John Steele Gordon *

Annette Gordon-Reed Annette Gordon-Reed (born November 19, 1958) is an American historian and law professor. She is currently the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University and a professor of history in the university's Faculty of Arts & Sciences. She ...

* T. A. Heppenheimer * Harold Holzer *

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gre ...

* 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 i ...

* John F. Kennedy * Edward G. Lengel * John Lukacs * Gerard Magliocca * Pauline Maier * David McCullough *

James M. McPherson James Munro McPherson (born October 11, 1936) is an American Civil War historian, and is the George Henry Davis '86 Professor Emeritus of United States History at Princeton University. He received the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for '' Battle Cry ...

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

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 *

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 s ...

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 fo ...

* 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 o ...

* 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 Worl ...

* Steven Waldman * Geoffrey Ward * Bernard Weisberger * 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 The National Magazine Awards, also known as the Ellie Awards, honor print and digital publications that consistently demonstrate superior execution of editorial objectives, innovative techniques, noteworthy enterprise and imaginative design. Or ...

, 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, ''Roosevelt and Churchill, 1939–1941: The Partnership That Saved the West'' * 1977 David 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