| Part 1 | The New World | 1 |
| 1 | The First People (50,000 B.C.E.-C.E. 1500s) | 3 |
| People of the Land Bridge | 3 |
| 45,000 Years of American History (Abridged Version) | 4 |
| South of the Border | 5 |
| Beyond the Aztec Horizon | 7 |
| Atlantic Presence | 8 |
| Leif the Lucky | 8 |
| 2 | West to East (1451-1507) | 11 |
| It's a Round, Round World | 11 |
| The Weaver's Boy | 12 |
| First Blood | 14 |
| Carving Up | 15 |
| Three More Voyages | 15 |
| Why We're Not Called Columbia | 16 |
| 3 | New Blood for Old Spain (1400-1600s) | 17 |
| The Sword of the Conquistador | 18 |
| The First American Revolutions | 22 |
| From Black Legend to Black Robes | 23 |
| 4 | England's Errand in the Wilderness (1497-1608) | 25 |
| O, Brave New World | 25 |
| A Colony Vanishes, Another Appears | 29 |
| 5 | A Rock and a Hard Place (1608-1733) | 33 |
| Promised Land | 34 |
| Massachusetts Bay | 36 |
| Rhode Island: Haven for the Heterodox | 37 |
| Maryland: Catholics Welcome | 38 |
| Pennsylvania: Quaker Colony | 38 |
| Georgia: Utopia, Prison, and Profit Center | 39 |
| 6 | Colonial Contenders (1608-1680s) | 43 |
| Champlain Sails In | 43 |
| The Sun King Beams | 45 |
| A Small Investment | 46 |
| Sweden in the Delaware VAlley | 49 |
| New Netherland Becomes New York | 49 |
| 7 | Fires in the Wilderness (1636-1748) | 51 |
| New England Bleeds | 51 |
| The French and Indians Wars | 54 |
| 8 | Global War in the Backwoods (1749-1763) | 59 |
| The French and Indian War | 60 |
| Seven Years' Bad Luck | 63 |
| Rebellion of a Chief | 65 |
| Part 2 | The World Turned Upside Down | 67 |
| 9 | Invitation to a Tea Party (1763-1775) | 69 |
| King George Draws a Line | 70 |
| Taxation Without Representation | 71 |
| Bloody Boston | 73 |
| Tearing Apart and Coming Together | 73 |
| The Shot Heard 'Round the World | 75 |
| Washington Signs On | 76 |
| A Misnamed Battle Near Bunker Hill | 77 |
| The Olive Branch Spurned, a Declaration Written | 77 |
| 10 | Fanning the Flames of Liberty (1776-1783) | 79 |
| A Bad Bet | 79 |
| The British Lion Roars | 81 |
| Re-Crossing the Delaware | 81 |
| Saratoga Sunrise | 82 |
| Trouble in the City of Brotherly Love | 83 |
| Vive la France! | 83 |
| A Hard Forge | 83 |
| White War, Red Blood | 84 |
| More Action in the South | 84 |
| The Triumph at Yorktown | 85 |
| Part 3 | Building the House | 89 |
| 11 | From Many, One (1787-1797) | 91 |
| Bound by a Rope of Sand | 92 |
| Northwest Ordinance | 92 |
| We the People | 93 |
| Constitutional Convention | 94 |
| Father of His Country | 96 |
| Glorious Afterthought: The Bill of Rights | 98 |
| Hamilton Gets the Credit | 99 |
| 12 | Growing Pains (1798-1812) | 101 |
| Foreign Affairs | 102 |
| The Age of Jefferson | 104 |
| Tecumseh Raises the Hatchet | 107 |
| 13 | 1812: A War for What? (1812-1814) | 109 |
| The War Hawks Roost | 109 |
| Three-Pronged Flop | 110 |
| The West in Peril | 111 |
| British Stranglehold | 112 |
| "We Have Met the Enemy, and They Are Ours" | 112 |
| O, Say Can You See | 113 |
| Deliverance on Lake Champlain | 114 |
| An American Hero Is Born | 115 |
| 14 | Fanfare for the Common Man (1814-1836) | 117 |
| Good Feelings | 117 |
| Bad Feelings | 120 |
| The Age of Jackson | 122 |
| 15 | Trails of Tears (1817-1842) | 125 |
| Liberty and Union, Now and Forever | 126 |
| The Seminoles Say No | 127 |
| The Defiance of Black Hawk | 128 |
| Indian Removal | 129 |
| Part 4 | The House Divided | 135 |
| 16 | A Nation in Chains (1724-1857) | 137 |
| Against the American Grain | 137 |
| The Tortured Course of Compromise | 140 |
| The Dred Scott Disaster | 143 |
| 17 | Westward the Course (1834-1846) | 145 |
| The Plow and the Reaper | 145 |
| Martyrdom in Texas | 147 |
| Rolling West | 148 |
| "What Hath God Wrought?" | 149 |
| 18 | Destiny Manifested (1846-1860) | 151 |
| Halls of Montezuma | 152 |
| Of God and Gold | 153 |
| 19 | A Strange Flag over Sumter (1859-1862) | 159 |
| John Brown's Body | 160 |
| Bleak Transition | 161 |
| April 12, 1861, 4:30 A.M. | 162 |
| From Bull Run to Antietam | 162 |
| Emancipation Proclaimed--More or Less | 167 |
| 20 | Bloody Road to Appomattox and Beyond (1863-1876) | 169 |
| Four Score and Seven | 170 |
| Vicksburg and Chattanooga | 172 |
| To Richmond | 173 |
| The March to the Sea | 174 |
| Mr. McLean's House | 175 |
| With Malice Toward Some | 176 |
| Enter "His Fraudulency" | 178 |
| Part 5 | Rebuilding the House | 179 |
| 21 | Sea to Shining Sea (1862-1878) | 181 |
| Home Sweet Home | 181 |
| Ruts and Rails | 183 |
| 22 | The Warpath (1862-1891) | 189 |
| Blue, Gray--and Red | 189 |
| Massacre in Minnesota | 192 |
| War for the Bozeman Trail | 192 |
| Hancock's War and Sheridan's Campaign | 193 |
| Struggle for the Black Hills | 194 |
| "I Will Fight No More Forever" | 195 |
| After Geronimo | 196 |
| Wounded Knee Ending | 197 |
| 23 | Exploitation and Enterprise (1869-1908) | 199 |
| An Empire of Cows | 199 |
| Law and Disorder | 200 |
| Cornering the Market | 202 |
| An Age of Invention | 204 |
| 24 | Octopus and Jungle (1877-1906) | 209 |
| The Golden Door | 209 |
| The Knights of Labor | 211 |
| Boss Tyranny | 213 |
| Chicago Meat | 214 |
| Part 6 | World Power | 219 |
| 25 | Over There (1898-1918) | 221 |
| Selling the News | 222 |
| He Kept Us Out of War | 224 |
| 26 | Booze, Boom, Bust (1918-1929) | 231 |
| Wilson's Dream | 232 |
| A Generation Lost and Found | 234 |
| America Goes Dry | 237 |
| Countdown to Black Tuesday | 238 |
| 27 | A New Deal and a New War (1930-1941) | 241 |
| Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? | 242 |
| Tyranny Abroad | 242 |
| The Epoch of FDR | 243 |
| Street Wars | 245 |
| Bloodlust | 246 |
| 28 | Saving the World (1941-1945) | 249 |
| "I Shall Return" | 250 |
| Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree | 251 |
| The Dark Genius of Erwin Rommel | 251 |
| Coral Sea and Midway | 252 |
| Island Hopping | 252 |
| On Mediterranean Shores | 253 |
| D-Day | 253 |
| Retaking Europe | 255 |
| Fat Man and Little Boy | 257 |
| Part 7 | Superpower | 259 |
| 29 | War Served Cold--and Hot (1944-1954) | 261 |
| Winning the Peace | 261 |
| Curtain of Iron | 264 |
| "Police Action" in Korea | 267 |
| 30 | From the Back of the Bus to the Great Society (1947-1968) | 271 |
| Executive Order 9981 | 272 |
| The Dream Deferred | 272 |
| Or Does It Explode? | 275 |
| Sputnik and the New Frontier | 276 |
| JFK | 277 |
| LBJ | 279 |
| 31 | Nam (1946-1975) | 281 |
| History | 282 |
| American "Advisors" | 283 |
| Flaming Monks and the Fall of a "Friend" | 283 |
| Rolling Thunder | 283 |
| "Escalation" and "Vietnamization" | 284 |
| Hearts and Minds | 285 |
| The Light at the End of the Tunnel | 286 |
| Nixon's War | 287 |
| Peace with Honor | 290 |
| Part 8 | Identity Crisis | 291 |
| 32 | Of Love, the Moon, and Dirty Tricks (1968-1974) | 293 |
| Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out | 293 |
| The Eagle Has Landed | 296 |
| Pentagon Papers | 296 |
| SALT, China, and the Middle East | 297 |
| CREEP | 299 |
| 33 | Women Rise, the Nation Drifts, Reagan Rallies (1963-1980) | 303 |
| A Woman's Place | 303 |
| Oil | 306 |
| The Japanese Miracle | 307 |
| Scary Cities, Crumbling Bridges | 308 |
| China Syndrome | 309 |
| The Fanatics | 310 |
| The Great Communicator | 311 |
| Part 9 | A New World Order? | 313 |
| 34 | A New Economy, a Plague, a Fallen Wall, and a Desert in Flames (1980-1991) | 315 |
| The Trickle-Down Solution | 316 |
| "Gay Plague" and a Blind Eye | 319 |
| "Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall!" | 319 |
| Ollie, Iran, and the Contras | 322 |
| Desert Shield and Desert Storm | 323 |
| 35 | Democracy (1991-1999) | 325 |
| The Economy, Stupid | 325 |
| The New Right | 326 |
| The Age of Rage | 328 |
| And It's Still the Economy | 332 |
| We Fight for Peace | 333 |
| 36 | E Pluribus Unum: Y2K (1991-) | 337 |
| American Trials | 337 |
| Of Wall Street Riches and the Great American Smokeout | 341 |
| From Leave It to Beaver to the Internet | 347 |
| Appendixes | |
| A | The Presidents | 353 |
| B | Further Reading | 357 |
| Index | 359 |
Format: Paperback, 2nd ed., 400 pages
