By John A. Meyers

For journalists, caught up in the swirl of fast-breaking events, it is sometimes easy to neglect the longer view, to forget the lessons of history. At TIME, we try to make the past a frequent companion. Every so often the magazine does a cover story on a figure of both historical significance and current concern: Adam Smith (the future of capitalism, 1975), Thomas Jefferson (the nation's Bicentennial, 1975) and, this week, the American past. Our subject, on the eve of Independence Day, is history itself, specifically the growing reappraisal by historians and ordinary citizens alike of the civics-book homilies that once passed for U.S. history.

The story was written by Senior Writer Lance Morrow, whose distinctive TIME Essays have attracted something of a following among readers. Columnist William F. Buckley has described Morrow's style as a blend of "pyrotechnics and lyricism." Says Senior Editor Otto Friedrich, who edited this week's story:

"Since Lance wrote the cover story on the Declaration of Independence for TIME'S Bicentennial issue and on the Bill of Rights for our follow-up issue a year later, he seemed the inescapable choice for this journey into history. He was there."

For the past four years, Morrow has been a principal writer of the TIME Essay, which he calls "a combination of editorial, crank letter and private meditation." A onetime U.S. Senate page and Harvard English major, he came to the magazine in 1965 from the Washington Star. He has a bit of family history on his office wall: an old photo of Great-Grandfather Albert Morrow, a 19th century U.S. Cavalry officer. The younger Morrow's meditation on the rediscovery of America appears in the Nation section, but he brings to the subject the same subtlety, wit and fascination with new concepts that animate his Essays. Says Morrow: "For me, ideas possess both drama and real, physical, palpable force."

Morrow was assisted by Reporter-Researcher Peggy Berman, who dug into more than 60 history books to find out how the U.S. has been portrayed to generations of American students. The subject is not foreign to her. Though a science major at Smith College, she spent part of her student days reading history and attending lectures on the subject. "I think I have always been drawn to history for the same reason I majored in biological sciences," she says. "Both subjects tie people into the infinitely longer scheme of life. When you integrate all the pieces, that's the fun of it. History is a good story."

John A. Meyers

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