Historian James Horn, a frequent contributor to American Heritage, is President of the Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation. Portions of this essay appeared in his recent book, 1619: Jamestown and the Forging of American Democracy (Basic Books).
Trusted Writing on History, Travel, and American Culture Since 1949
January 2019
Jeffrey Rosen is a historian, law professor, and President and CEO of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. His most recent book is William Howard Taft (Times Books), from which this essay is adapted. –The Editors
In the predawn darkness of January 22, 1944, an amphibious force of 36,000 members of VI Corps, a joint U.S.-British command, and a part of Lt. Gen. Mark Clark’s combined U.S.-British Fifth army, was heading toward the German-held beach towns of Anzio and Nettuno, on the eastern coast of Italy, just 40 miles south of Rome.
Bruce Watson, a Contributing Editor of American Heritage, writes blogs for our website and his own at TheAttic.space.
