Reviews
The secret lives of America’s most important historical documents
In the early days of World War II, poet Archibald MacLeish, then the reluctant director of the Library of Congress, worked with the Secret Service to relocate the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Gettysburg Address and thousands of other precious documents to hiding places, including Fort Knox, where they would…
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One Hundred Years and a Day
A hundred years ago yesterday, President Woodrow Wilson signed the act that created the National Park Service.* I’ve spent many happy hours at facilities run by the NPS. I look forward to spending many more. So I’d feel bad about sending the agency the equivalent of a belated birthday card, if it weren’t for the…
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City of Sedition
I keep thinking I’ll take a break from the American Civil War, but it just keeps shoving itself in my face. And so I keep shoving it in yours. I recently finished an extraordinary book. It had me writing notes to myself in the margins: “check what [someone else] has to say, “compare to X”,…
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