August/September 1984

Vidal’s Lincoln

The story of how a blast of cool, dry air changed America

For years it was seen as the worst of times: bloated, crass, witlessly extravagant. But now scholars are beginning to find some of the era’s unexpected virtues.

The masses and the media made waves for the Stevenson campaign of 1960 and almost upset John F. Kennedy’s bid for the Democratic nomination. The waves have been felt ever since.

A pioneer locomotive builder used pen and ink, watercolor, and near-total recall to re-create the birth of a titanic enterprise

E.G. Lewis decided that a strong man could liberate American women and make money doing it

The Founding, Fathers never did agree about the proper relationship between church and state. No wonder the Supreme Court has been backing and filling on the principle ever since.

Eight generations back, the author discovered a forebear hanging on the family tree

… is more comfortable and safer than World War II’s “steel pot. ” The problem is that it looks just like the One Hitlers troops wore.

The National Archives, America’s official safe-deposit box, is only fifty years old—but it is already bulging with our treasures and souvenirs

The Secret Service considered Emanuel Ninger a common counterfeiter. He saw himself as an American master of the impressionist school.

It is the repository of the wisdom and poetry of the world. Its editor tells the story of how it came into being and how it stays there .

He was a lieutenant in the Army of the United States: he saw no reason to sit in the back of the bus