When the Alibris.com used book site came online a few years back, I set about ordering books that I fondly remembered from my youth. Among the first was Air War Against Hitler’s Germany by Stephen Spears, published by the American Heritage Junior Library.From the dramatic cover painting — a landscape viewed from the position of a B-17 waist gunner, the most dangerous spot on a Flying Fortress — the book was one vast thrill that still causes my knee to jiggle just thinking about it — just thinking about that star-crossed raid to hit the ball-bearing plant at Schweinfurt.

I tried to press it on the boys, several times, but they cast it aside with a shrug. I could never figure out why. Maybe the cultural moment has shifted — the guys who flew those planes were still in their 40s when I read the book. They’re in their 80s now.

That shift might also explain why American Heritage, the company that published the book, and since 1954 produced a lovely, hard-bound periodical that is a staple at elementary school libraries and garage sales nationwide, went out of business this week, after being put on sale by its owner, Forbes magazine, and failing to find a buyer.

That surprises me. This would seem to be a golden age for history, with all those David McCullough and Stephen Ambrose best sellers. But these are also busy times, with information washing over us, and a hardbound slim history book that falls into your lap every other month drew only 350,000 subscribers, which seems like quite a lot. But not enough, sadly.

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