Editing Henry Steele Commager (section)

===Essays===
Commager wrote hundreds of essays and opinion pieces on history or presenting a historical perspective on current issues for popular magazines and newspapers.  He collected many of the best of these articles and essays in such books as ''Freedom, Loyalty, Dissent''; ''The Search for a Usable Past and Other Essays in Historiography''; ''Freedom and Order: A Commentary on the American Political Scene''; ''The Commonwealth of Learning''; ''The Defeat of America: War, Presidential Power and the National Character''; and ''Jefferson, Nationalism, and the Enlightenment.''  He often was interviewed on television news programs and public-affairs documentaries to provide historical perspective on such events as the [[Apollo 11]] Moon landing and the [[Watergate scandal|Watergate]] crisis. Benjamin W. Cramer  states:
{{blockquote|Commager's lifelong advocacy of intellectual freedom, popular knowledge, and the historical interpretation of contemporary issues has had long-lasting influence on scholars and public advocates, though over the years his politics has been seen as either too liberal or too conservative by various detractors. He is ranked among such other great historians of his time as Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Allan Nevins, Richard Hofstadter, and Samuel Eliot Morrison [sic].{{sfn|Cramer|2015|p=139}}}}