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September/October 2024
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Features
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MacArthur Down Under
From the Outback to the Queensland coast, tracking the general’s far-flung travels as he plotted his dramatic World War II comeback
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Lasting Impressions
Claude Monet’s late-in-life obsession with water lilies caused him mental anguish—but produced some of his greatest masterpieces
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The Spirit of Oaxaca
Climate change, corporate money, soaring demand—can Mexico’s mezcal distillers find a viable path for a beloved beverage?
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Seeing Eye to Eye
Learning to live beside endangered tigers may be the key to saving them
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Hometown Heroes
The Great Migration of African Americans from the South transformed the nation—but millions never left. Their unlikely success in the era of Jim Crow makes their stories all the more remarkable
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Hot Days, Cool Heads
In Miami, the nation’s first chief heat officer charts a course for surviving on a warming planet
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Takedown in Terre Haute
How a crusading suffragist helped expose a citywide conspiracy in 1914—and set a new precedent for fair elections
Departments
Discussion
Your feedback on escaped hippos, coastal defenses and ancient cultures
How the Civil War Spawned the Mail-In Ballot
At the National Postal Museum, a new exhibition traces the long history of a newly popular way of voting
Freedom’s First Draft
A bold meeting 250 years ago began to knit the Colonies into a country
Bursting With Life
Colorful, intricate drawings challenge our notions of Shaker design
How England Became England
New research is revealing how the Sceptered Isle transformed from a Roman backwater to a mighty country of its own
A Record of Liberty
A remarkable set of documents, newly digitized, reveals the plight and bravery of enslaved people in the North
String Theory
The plucky design behind the most legendary guitar in all of rock
Carving Out the Future
Celebrating 50 years of the modernist masterpiece that shocked critics—and helped turn D.C. into an arts capital
Maestro of Design
Tyrus Wong spent 106 years making the world more beautiful. A new biography takes us inside his extraordinary life
Blessings in Disguise
The spine-tingling roots of a mischievous Halloween tradition
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