Growing Up Kennedy; How Roosevelt Saved the West; the Difficulty of Ending a War

A special delivery from the Vanity Fair archive

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This Presidents’ Day, catch up on your history lessons. The VF Archive dives deep into the men who have left their mark on this country—in good ways and bad.

Two Sons, One Destiny

Mining the hundreds of Kennedy-family letters that have just become public, Cari Beauchamp reveals the complicated dynamic between the young JFK, his formidable brother, and their tycoon father as it played itself out in the arenas of women, politics, and World War II.

The Second Coming

Donald Trump’s campaign rallies—part tent revival, part Roman colosseum—featured a bizarre gospel of numerology, tweetology, and white supremacy. There, Trump is God, and Jeff Sharlet joined the faithful.

How the West Was Saved

Already a noted naturalist and explorer, in April 1903 President Theodore Roosevelt embarked on a cross-country trek that would take him deep into the glories of Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, and Yosemite. In an excerpt from his book, Douglas Brinkley traces Roosevelt’s mark on environmental history: the preservation of some 230 million acres of forest and wilderness.

Enter Obama

With Barack Obama’s presidential victory, a yearning for goodness and a new start despite horrendous obstacles is once again palpably ascendant in our country. Maureen Orth assesses a moment, a White House, and a movement.

Four Horsemen of the Forever War

How successive commanders in chief, from Bush to Biden, got caught in the Afghan quagmire.