For over half a century Henry Steele Commager has devoted his energies to making it easier for scholars and lay readers both to "get at" the sources of the American historical record and to understand their heritage more fully. He has undertaken these tasks so that his readers might become more informed and responsible participants in the great experiment launched in the eighteenth century to make a free, democratic, and bountiful society a reality on the North American continent. His efforts have included the publication of textbooks for youth and university students, the editing of volumes of original source material, the writing of biographies of prominent Americans, the exploration of the American character, and the hectoring of the reading public in numerous popular articles demanding that Americans live responsibly and prove worthy of their heritage. He proudly calls himself a Jeffersonian, and his sprightly style, his eye for...