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September 2017
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Features
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The Man Who Fell to Earth
America’s longest-orbiting astronaut describes his rocky return home in this adaptation from his book 'Endurance.'
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The Cave-dwelling Vegan Who Took on Quaker Slavery and Won
The nation’s first radical abolitionist was one of the most dramatic outspoken figures of the 18th century. Yet few historians have even heard of the amazing Benjamin Lay.
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Our Man in Manila
MacArthur’s famed return to the Philippines, yet the full story of Chick Parsons’ daring feats has not been told—until now.
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Home of the Brave
The nation’s only town founded by African-American Civil War soldiers remains a bastion of resilience 150 years later.
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Franklin’s Secret Heartache
Founder Benjamin Franklin treated his wife so shabbily. Our writer has a stunning new theory.
Departments
The Original “It” Girl
Flappers took the country by storm in the roaring ’20s and then suddenly vanished. Or did they?
Prophet Motive
Decades later, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s complex works are increasingly prescient—and valuable.
A Newly Discovered Diary Tells the Harrowing Story of the Deadly Halifax Explosion
On the eve of the disaster’s centennial, a sailor’s 1917 journal details a rare eyewitness account of the massive harbor blast
When Fonzie Lost His Cool
He was the epitome of ’50s chill on TV’s family-friendly “Happy Days.” And then he went over the top.
The Unexpected Beauty of Tearing Things Apart
Grammy Award-winning musician Esperanza Spalding puts her spin on the history of design at Smithsonian’s Cooper Hewitt museum in a show about transformation, the motif of her latest album, 'Emily’s D+Evolution.'
The War Comes Home to Wisconsin
In an indelible picture 50 years ago, one family faces a loss in Vietnam.
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