View source for American Heritage (magazine)

{{short description|Mainstream magazine of American history}}
{{Use American English|date=June 2022}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2022}}
{{Infobox magazine
| image_file = American Heritage, Spring 2018.jpg
| title = American Heritage
| logo = American Heritage logo.jpg
| editor = [[Edwin S. Grosvenor]]
| image_caption = Cover of the Spring 2018 issue featuring United States President [[William McKinley]]
| editor_title = Editor-in-chief
| frequency = Quarterly
| circulation = 160,000
| category = [[American history]]
| company = American Heritage Publishing Company
| founded = 1947
| finaldate = 2013 (print; relaunched digitally in 2017)
| country = [[United States]]
| based = [[Rockville, Maryland]]
| language = English
| website = {{URL|http://www.americanheritage.com}}
| issn = 0002-8738
}}
'''''American Heritage''''' is a magazine dedicated to covering the [[history of the United States]] for a mainstream readership. Until 2007, the magazine was published by [[Forbes]].<ref name="test">[http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2008/3/2008_3_4_dept.shtml Grosvenor, Edwin S.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090916062344/http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2008/3/2008_3_4_dept.shtml |date=2009-09-16 }} "Editor's Letter," ''American Heritage'', Winter 2008.</ref> Since that time, [[Edwin S. Grosvenor]] has been its editor and publisher.<ref name="NY Times article">{{cite news|last1=Rich|first1=Motoko|title=American Heritage is Bought|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/24/books/24arts-AMERICANHERI_BRF.html|work=The New York Times|date=October 24, 2007}}</ref> Print publication was suspended early in 2013,<ref>[http://hnn.us/article/151745]"American Heritage Magazine Temporarily Suspends Publication," [[History News Network]], May 2, 2013.</ref> but the magazine relaunched in digital format with the Summer 2017 issue<ref name="PR Newswire">{{cite web|title=American Heritage Returns in Digital Format|url=http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/american-heritage-returns-in-digital-format-632863463.html|website=PRNewswire.com|publisher=PR Newswire}}</ref><ref name="Reynolds, Heritage is Back!">{{cite journal |last1=Reynolds |first1=Mark |title=Open configuration options American Heritage is Back! |journal=American Heritage Magazine |date=June 2017 |volume=63 |issue=1 |url=https://www.americanheritage.com/american-heritage-back}}</ref> after a Kickstarter campaign raised $31,203 from 587 backers.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.americanheritage.com/|title=AMERICAN HERITAGE|website=www.americanheritage.com}}</ref><ref name="KIckstarter">{{cite web|title=Saving American Heritage, the Famed Magazine of History|url=https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/americanheritage/saving-american-heritage-the-famed-magazine-of-his|website=Kickstarter.com|access-date=18 December 2016}}</ref> The 70th Anniversary issue of the magazine (Winter 2020) on the subject "What Makes America Great?" includes essays by such historians as [[Fergus Bordewich]], [[Douglas Brinkley]], [[Joseph Ellis]], and [[David S. Reynolds]].<ref name="Winter 2020 issue">{{cite journal |title=Winter 2020 Issue |journal=American Heritage Magazine |volume=64:1 |url=https://www.americanheritage.com/content/winter-2020-0}}</ref>
==History==
From 1947 to 1949 the [[American Association for State and Local History]] published a [[house organ]], '''''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 [[American Civil War|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.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Reynolds, Mark C.|title=Golden Anniversary |journal=American Heritage|volume=55 |issue=6|publisher=American Heritage Publishing|date=November–December 2004|url=http://www.americanheritage.com/content/golden-anniversary-1|access-date=January 22, 2012}}</ref><ref name="Reynolds, Heritage is Back!" /> 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]]''. 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.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Bio and Essays of Bruce Catton |journal=American Heritage Magazine |url=https://www.americanheritage.com/users/bruce-catton |access-date=27 January 2020}}</ref> 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.”<ref name="Blight, Catton">{{cite journal |last1=Blight |first1=David |title=Bruce Catton |journal=American Heritage Magazine |volume=62:1 |issue=Spring 2012 |url=https://www.americanheritage.com/bruce-catton}}</ref><ref name="Jensen, Working with Catton">{{cite journal |last1=Jensen |first1=Oliver |title=Working with Bruce Catton |journal=American Heritage Magazine |volume=30:2 |issue=February/March 1979 |url=https://www.americanheritage.com/working-bruce-catton}}</ref>
In 1964, [[David McCullough]] began his writing career as an editor and writer for ''American Heritage'', which he sometimes calls "my graduate school".<ref>{{cite web|work=American Academy of Achievement|title=David McCullough Biography|url=http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/mcc2bio-1|access-date=January 22, 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080517044317/http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/mcc2bio-1|archive-date=May 17, 2008}}</ref> McCullough wrote numerous articles for the magazine.<ref>[http://www.americanheritage.com/users/david-mccullough Brief biography and list of ''American Heritage'' articles by David McCullough].</ref> He turned his article for the June 1966 issue on the [[Johnstown Flood]], ''Run for Your Lives'',<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.americanheritage.com/run-your-lives|title=Run For Your Lives! &#124; AMERICAN HERITAGE|website=www.americanheritage.com}}</ref> into a full-length book titled, ''[[The Johnstown Flood (book)|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.
[[S&P Global|McGraw-Hill]] purchased the American Heritage Publishing Company in 1969.<ref>{{Cite journal| issn = 0022-2259| volume = 7| issue = 1| pages = 5–32| last = Christianson| first = Elin B.| title = Mergers in the Publishing Industry, 1958-1970| journal = The Journal of Library History| accessdate = 2021-03-06| date = 1972| url = http://www.jstor.org/stable/25540337| jstor = 25540337}}</ref> Samuel P. Reed acquired the magazine in 1978.<ref name="AP">{{Cite web| title = Forbes Buys American Heritage Magazine| work = AP NEWS| accessdate = 2021-03-06| url = https://apnews.com/article/d30c29e5f2674bd6559b1b81e9b12b91}}</ref> 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.<ref name="AP"/>
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."<ref>{{cite news|last=McGrath|first=Charles|title= Magazine Suspends Its Run in History|work=The New York Times|date=May 17, 2007|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/17/arts/17heri.html|access-date=March 8, 2008}}</ref> On October 27, 2007, [[Edwin S. Grosvenor]], purchased the magazine from Forbes for $500,000 in cash and $10 million in subscription liabilities.<ref>{{cite news |last=Rich|first=Motoko|title=American Heritage Is Bought|work=The New York Times|date=October 24, 2007|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/24/books/24arts-AMERICANHERI_BRF.html|access-date=March 8, 2008}}</ref>  Grosvenor, who serves as president and editor-in-chief, is the former editor of the fine arts magazine, [[Portfolio Magazine|''Portfolio'']]. Grosvenor was also the editor of the literary magazine, ''Current Books'', and magazines for [[Marriott Hotels|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.<ref name="Reynolds, Heritage is Back!" />
== Contents ==
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,"<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.americanheritage.com/growing-colored|title=Growing Up Colored &#124; AMERICAN HERITAGE|website=www.americanheritage.com}}</ref> 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)<ref>{{cite journal |title=American Heritage Winter 2020 |journal=American Heritage |volume=64 |issue=1 |url=https://www.americanheritage.com/content/winter-2020-0}}</ref> and an issue on the history of [[gun control]] with essays by historian [[Joseph Ellis|Joseph J. Ellis]], law professor [[Adam Winkler]], and gun rights advocate [[Robert A. Levy]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Grosvenor |first1=Edwin |title=Introduction: A Special Issue on the Right to Bear Arms |journal=American Heritage |date=September 2019 |volume=64 |issue=4 |url=https://www.americanheritage.com/introduction-special-issue-right-bear-arms |access-date=25 January 2020}}</ref>
Some historians have criticized the magazine for what they say is a lack of seriousness.  Reviewing David McCullough's [[John Adams (book)|book on John Adams]] in ''The New Republic'',<ref>{{cite web|last=Wilentz|first=Sean|title=America Made Easy McCullough, Adams, and the decline of popular history|url=http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/90636/david-mccullough-john-adams-book-review|work=The New Republic|access-date=January 22, 2013}}</ref> Sean Wilentz stated that during the 1950s, "[[Bernard DeVoto|[Bernard] DeVoto]]'s style of seriousness [was] eclipsed by the more journalistic and sentimentally descriptive style of ''American Heritage'', whose influence is everywhere." Wilentz claimed that McCullough and film maker [[Ken Burns]] 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.<ref>{{cite web|last=Snow|first=Richard|title=Has American Heritage Gone Soft?|url=http://hnn.historynewsnetwork.org/articles/264.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130827012832/http://hnn.historynewsnetwork.org/articles/264.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=August 27, 2013|work=History News Network |access-date=January 22, 2013}}</ref>
Numerous articles in ''American Heritage'' have later been expanded into bestselling books, including:
* [[Barbara W. Tuchman]]'s three-part series on General [[Joseph Stilwell]] in 1970, beginning with "A Yankee Among The War Lords",<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.americanheritage.com/yankee-among-war-lords|title=A Yankee Among The War Lords &#124; AMERICAN HERITAGE|website=www.americanheritage.com}}</ref> that was later published as ''[[Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45]]'', which won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1972.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.pulitzer.org/awards/1972|title=Pulitzer Prizes for 1972|website=www.pulitzer.org}}</ref>
* [[Walter Lord]]'s 1955 article "Maiden Voyage: The first and last trip of the 'unsinkable' ''Titanic''",<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.americanheritage.com/maiden-voyage|title=Maiden Voyage &#124; AMERICAN HERITAGE|website=www.americanheritage.com}}</ref> that became the bestselling ''[[A Night to Remember (book)|A Night to Remember]]'', which was made into a [[A Night to Remember (1958 film)|movie]].
* [[Laura Hillenbrand]]'s 1998 article, "Four Good Legs Between Us",<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.americanheritage.com/four-good-legs-between-us|title="Four Good Legs Between Us" &#124; AMERICAN HERITAGE|website=www.americanheritage.com}}</ref> that became the 2001 book, ''[[Seabiscuit: An American Legend]]'' and the 2003 film, [[Seabiscuit (film)|''Seabiscuit'']], which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
In addition to running four to six articles, ''American Heritage'''s 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 [[United States Bicentennial|Bicentennial]], ''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 [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]].
==== ''The American Heritage Specials'' ====
* ''The World Turned Upside Down'' ([[George Washington]] and the [[Siege of Yorktown (1781)|Battle of Yorktown]]); originally broadcast November 27, 1973
* ''Lincoln: Trial by Fire'' ([[Abraham Lincoln]], [[George B. McClellan|George McClellan]] and the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]); originally broadcast January 20, 1974
* ''The Yanks are Coming'' (General [[John J. Pershing]] and [[World War I]]); originally broadcast April 22, 1974
* ''The Honorable Sam Houston'' ([[Sam Houston]] and his failed efforts to keep [[Texas]] out of the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]]); originally broadcast January 22, 1975
<ref>{{Cite web|title=THE AMERICAN HERITAGE SPECIALS - David L. Wolper|url=http://www.davidlwolper.com/shows/details.cfm?showID=334|access-date=2021-09-02|website=www.davidlwolper.com}}</ref>
[[File:THE KING OF SPAIN AND NAPLES.png|thumb|The Philadelphia descendants of former King [[Joseph-Napoléon Bonaparte]] featured in American Heritage 1970]]
==Editors==
*[[Bruce Catton]] (1954–1959)<ref>{{cite web|last=Catton|first=Bruce|title=Bio and article list|url=http://www.americanheritage.com/users/bruce-catton|publisher=American Heritage|access-date=6 April 2013}}</ref>
* Oliver Jensen (1959–1976)<ref>{{cite web|last=Jensen|first=Oliver|title=Bio and article list|url=http://www.americanheritage.com/users/oliver-jensen|publisher=American Heritage|access-date=6 April 2013}}</ref>
*[[Alvin M. Josephy, Jr.]] (1976–1978)<ref>{{cite web|last=Josephy|first=Alvin|title=Bio and article list|url=http://www.americanheritage.com/users/alvin-m-josephy-jr|publisher=American Heritage|access-date=6 April 2013}}</ref>
*[[Geoffrey Ward]] (1978–1982)<ref>{{cite web|last=Ward|first=Geoffrey|title=Bio and article list|url=http://www.americanheritage.com/users/geoffrey-c-ward|publisher=American Heritage|access-date=6 April 2013}}</ref>
*[[Byron Dobell]] (1982–1989)<ref>{{cite web|last=Dobell|first=Byron|title=Bio and article list|url=http://www.americanheritage.com/users/byron-dobell|publisher=American Heritage|access-date=6 April 2013}}</ref>
*[[Richard Snow]] (1989–2007)<ref>{{cite web|last=Snow|first=Richard|title=Bio and article list|url=http://www.americanheritage.com/users/richard-f-snow|publisher=American Heritage|access-date=6 April 2013}}</ref>
*[[Edwin S. Grosvenor]] (2007–present)<ref>{{cite web|last=Grosvenor|first=Edwin|title=Bio and article list|url=http://www.americanheritage.com/users/edwin-s-grosvenor|publisher=American Heritage|access-date=6 April 2013}}</ref>
== Notable staff and contributors ==
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
* [[Daniel Aaron]]
* [[Elie Abel]]
* [[Dean Acheson]]
* [[Stephen Ambrose]]
* [[Cleveland Amory]]
* [[Kevin Baker (author)|Kevin Baker]]
* [[Bernard Bailyn]]
* [[Carlos Baker]]
* [[Russell Baker]]
* [[Michael Beschloss]]
* [[David W. Blight]]
* [[Fergus Bordewich]]
* [[Alan Brinkley]]
* [[Douglas Brinkley]]
* [[Bruce Catton]]
* [[Arthur C. Clarke|Sir Arthur C. Clarke]]
* [[Henry Steele Commager]]
* [[Malcolm Cowley]]
* [[Tom D. Crouch]]
* [[Paul Dickson (writer)|Paul Dickson]]
* [[John Dos Passos]]
* [[John Eisenhower]]
* [[Joseph Ellis]]
* [[Thomas Fleming (historian)|Thomas Fleming]]
* [[James Thomas Flexner]]
* [[Eric Foner]]
* [[John A. Garraty]]
* [[Henry Louis Gates Jr.]]
* [[John Steele Gordon]]
* [[Annette Gordon-Reed]]
* [[T. A. Heppenheimer]]
* [[Harold Holzer]]
* [[Herbert Hoover]]
* [[A.E. Dick Howard]]
* James Horn
* [[Jane Kamensky]]
* [[John F. Kennedy]]
* [[Edward G. Lengel]]
* [[John Lukacs]]
* [[Gerard Magliocca]]
* [[Pauline Maier]]
* [[David McCullough]]
* [[James M. McPherson]]
* [[Peter S. Onuf]]
* [[Nathaniel Philbrick]]
* [[David S. Reynolds]]
* [[Jeffrey Rosen (legal academic)|Jeffrey Rosen]]
* [[Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.]]
* [[Peter Schweizer]]
* [[Robert A. M. Stern]]
* [[Jean Strouse]]
* [[Alan Taylor (historian)|Alan Taylor]]
* [[Barbara Tuchman]]
* [[Steven Waldman]]
* [[Geoffrey Ward]]
* [[Bernard Weisberger]]
* [[Gordon S. Wood]]
* [[Joshua M. Zeitz]]
{{div col end}}
== 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	<ref>Id., [[American Society of Magazine Editors]], [http://www.Magazine.org www.Magazine.org] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191230194803/https://www.magazine.org/ |date=2019-12-30 }}, entire year cited.</ref>
*1985, Winner, National Magazine Award (General Excellence), Byron Dobell, editor	<ref name="ReferenceA">Id., For the April/May, June/July, and December issues.</ref>
*1985, Winner, National Magazine Award (Single-Topic Issue), Byron Dobell, editor	<ref>Id., For "A Medical Picture of the United States", October/November issue.</ref>
*1986, Finalist, National Magazine Award (General Excellence), Byron Dobell, editor	<ref name="ReferenceA"/>
*1986, Finalist, National Magazine Award (Design), Byron Dobell, editor, Beth Whitaker, art director	<ref name="ReferenceA"/>
*1987, Finalist, National Magazine Award (General Excellence), Byron Dobell, editor	<ref>Id., For the August/September, October/November, and December issues.</ref>
*1988, Finalist, National Magazine Award (General Excellence), Byron Dobell, editor	<ref>Id., For the July/August, November, December and issues.</ref>
*1989, Winner, National Magazine Award (General Excellence), Byron Dobell, editor	<ref>Id., For the May/June, September/October, and November issues.</ref>
*1990, Finalist, National Magazine Award (Design), Byron Dobell, editor, Theodore Kalomirakis, art director	<ref>Id., For the February, March, and July/August issues.</ref>
*1990, Finalist, National Magazine Award (General Excellence), Byron Dobell, editor	<ref>Id., For the March, May/June, and December issues.</ref>
*1991, Finalist, National Magazine Award (General Excellence), Byron Dobell, editor	<ref>Id., For the February, May/June, and September issues.</ref>
*1993, Finalist, National Magazine Award (General Excellence), [[Richard Snow|Richard F. Snow]], editor	<ref>Id., For the February/March, May/June, and December issues.</ref>
*1999, Finalist, National Magazine Award (General Excellence), [[Richard Snow|Richard F. Snow]], editor	<ref>Id., For the May/June, November, and December issues.</ref>
===Samuel Eliot Morison Award {{anchor|Samuel Eliot Morison Award}}===
{{For|other awards with this name|Samuel Eliot Morison Award (disambiguation)}}
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."<ref name=krebs>{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/09/29/archives/notes-on-people.html |title=Notes on People |work=[[The New York Times]] |author=Albin Krebs |date=September 29, 1977 |access-date=December 23, 2017}}</ref> The first award was presented on September 28, 1977, by [[Henry A. Kissinger]] at the [[Pierpont Morgan Library]], valued at $5,000.<ref name=krebs/> It ran for two years.
* 1976 [[Joseph P. Lash]], ''Roosevelt and Churchill, 1939–1941: The Partnership That Saved the West''<ref name=krebs/>
* 1977 [[David McCullough]], ''[[The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914]]''<ref name="Samuel Eliot Morison Award 1978">{{cite journal |title=Samuel Eliot Morison Award 1978 |journal=American Heritage |date=October 1978 |volume=29 |number=6 |url=http://www.americanheritage.com/content/samuel-eliot-morison-award-1978 |access-date=December 23, 2017}}</ref>
==See also==
* ''[[The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language]]''
* ''[[American Heritage of Invention & Technology]]''
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
* {{Official website}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:American Heritage (Magazine)}}
[[Category:1947 establishments in the United States]]
[[Category:2013 disestablishments in the United States]]
[[Category:Bimonthly magazines published in the United States]]
[[Category:Defunct magazines published in the United States]]
[[Category:History magazines published in the United States]]
[[Category:Magazines established in 1947]]
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[[Category:Magazines published in Baltimore]]
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