May/June 1998

Is Robert E. Lee getting a free ride? Is it time someone spoke up for Richard Nixon? And does anyone have the lonely courage to say that most barbecue is greasy filth? There are exaggerated reputations in every field of American history—and overlooked ones too. We asked the experts to choose which is which.

Bourbon whiskey has had a long, rugged ride from the frontier to the top shelf

Light rail was an attractive, economical, and environmentally sound technology— until the auto companies crushed it. That, at any rate, is what a lot of people believe, and now the nation is spending billions to re-create an imaginary past.

Our war with Spain marked the first year of the American Century