It began in the desert of New Mexico on July 16, 1945, with the first U.S. atomic test called Trinity. The device was comprised of 19,300 tons of TNT explosive. There was an intense light that brightened the distant mountains, a sudden wave of heat, and then a tremendous roar as the shock wave ec...

The mobilization of America for war was both an arduous and dispute ridden process. With many in the United States still opposed to intervention at the start of the war, financing it and managing it on a material level, as well as gaining public support for an overseas campaign were at the very le...

It has been a 'splendid little war' wrote John Hay to Theodore Roosevelt after the fall of Santiago. Little, the Spanish-American War was; it was over in barely four months. Splendid? Maybe for those at home, reading the headline about its lucky victories. But for those men who fo...

The history and genealogy of my family on my father's side is difficult to write. Not because it is complicated or shrouded in mystery or intrigue, but because there is no written history of it; no documents, no diaries, no letters. What little exists has been passed down verbally from my Dad's gr...

America is in the midst of a culture war, and one of the latest skirmishes occurred between the houses and hedgerows surrounding the Smithsonian Museum. On one side were the members of a growing numbers of acedemians and cultural theorists who believe that American should not be honored a...