At the beginning of 2026, to kick off this year’s celebration of the 250th birthday of the United States, we published a list of America’s Most Iconic Companies. Based on a national survey, conducted with our research partner Statista, we ranked companies—including Ford, Apple, the Walt Disney Co., and 247 more—not solely by their commercial success but by the vital role they’ve played in shaping culture and society.
Read More: The Story Behind TIME’s Our America Project
TIME belongs in that group. We regularly meet people for whom TIME has played a key role in their understanding of this nation—the aid worker in Rwanda who waited each week for TIME to be delivered by airplane; the entrepreneur who grew up in India reading her father’s copy each week, followed by a compulsory dinner-table conversation—as well as so many living across the U.S. for whom TIME has offered access to the broader country and beyond. It was our co-founder Henry Luce who named the 20th century the “American century,” and, for 103 years now, TIME has been an essential part of the American character, a window for the world—and, for Americans, a view onto ourselves.
Read More: How Shepard Fairey Created TIME’s ‘Our America’ Cover
In a recent piece for TIME, historian James T. Kloppenberg writes about the individuals who gave birth to this country: “They fought on behalf of ordinary citizens empowered, for the first time in modern history, to act on the idea that all authority in a democracy comes from, and remains in the hands of, the people.” We know that the media then, as it must today, played an essential role in nurturing our democratic traditions.
In this issue, you will find Walter Isaacson, TIME’s top editor from 1996 to 2001, on “the greatest sentence ever crafted,” and its singular role in giving birth to America. You’ll also find an excerpt from our recent interview with Brian Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America, an institution that prides itself on playing a role in the growth of the national economy for nearly as long as we have had a nation. That interview comes from a new video series we’ve just launched called The CEO Moment, featuring lessons on leadership from top global business executives, sponsored by Cognizant.
For the past several months, led by our managing editor Lily Rothman with editor David Walters, we’ve been asking experts to tell us about the art, innovations, and places that capture the essence of American life to them. Their answers are included in this special semiquincentennial issue of TIME. Apple’s Tim Cook selected the iPhone; SpaceX’s Gwynne Shotwell, the rocket; Ken Burns, the Lincoln Memorial; Ralph Lauren, the Empire State Building; and Bill Ford, Michigan Central Station. Olympian Mikaela Shiffrin pays tribute to the Rockies; climber Alex Honnold grabs hold of Yosemite; and authors including Ann Patchett, George Saunders, and Min Jin Lee choose the books that define America.
A few things stand out: the impact of technology on civic life, the hope inspired by the recent Artemis II mission, and, above all, the belief that even at difficult moments—perhaps especially then—the American ideal, in its many meanings, endures and is worth celebrating. (And, for our food contributors, so does chicken, in its many formats.) The package was designed by Victor Williams with Jennifer Panzer, and photography was selected by Kim Bubello. Creative director D.W. Pine worked with artist Shepard Fairey to create his fourth cover for TIME, this one channeling the Statue of Liberty and incorporating imagery from across our history, including achievements in science, the arts, and industry.
TIME, of course, has covered America’s anniversaries before. Our bicentennial special, written as if it were published in 1776, took a history-focused look at the founding; in 1926, we wrote about President Calvin Coolidge’s visit to Philadelphia for the 150th. I love the idea of someone picking up this issue one hundred years from now in search of America, knowing that TIME can help them find it.
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