In honor of its 75th anniversary in 2009, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), with the Foundation for the National Archives, has produced this handsome coffee table-sized volume, published in the UK, displaying selected materials from its collection to showcase U.S. history up to the present. The book also includes essays by Michael Beschloss, Tom Brokaw, Ken Burns, Cokie Roberts, and David McCullough, among others. Archivists at NARA can preserve only one to three percent of any year's government records; it's staggering to think how such choices continue to be made. Here, selected items are displayed with descriptions in chronological order within themes: territorial expansion and exploration, immigration and migration, political life, rights of women and minorities, and the growth of industry and technology. The notable documents are here, such as the Constitution of the North American Free Trade Association (NAFTA) agreement, but there are plenty of less predictable gems, like the contents of Eleanor Roosevelt's wallet at the time of her death in 1962, the first 1040 tax form from 1913, and an 1877 picture of Little Bighorn with the bones of the horses still on the ground where Custer took cover.
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