"An original publication of the New home library, 1944." "Enlarged and specially illustrated edition."

English territorial claims and colonial beginnings --
Backgrounds of migration and settlement --
Laying foundations in agriculture --
The rise of commerce and industry --
Growth of social and intellectual autonomy --
Practicing the arts of self-government --
Two systems and ideologies in conflict --
Independence completed by revolution --
Constitutional government for the United States --
Establishing the republican way of life --
The revolutionary generation in charge of the federal government --
Expansion to the Pacific --
The Industrial Revolution --
Rise of national democracy --
A broadening and deepening sense of civilization --
Party strife over control of the federal government --
National unity sealed in an armed contest --
Reconstruction and economic expansion --
Centralization of economy --
Centralization as involved in the political struggle --
The breach with historic continentalism --
Widening knowledge and thought --
Revolts against plutocracy grow in political power --
Realizations in social improvement --
Gates of old opportunities closing --
World War and aftermath --
Economic crash and the New Deal uprising --
Global war and home front --
Appendix. Selected documents from American history --
Chronology of events --
Presidents and Vice Presidents of the United States --
Territorial growth of the United States, 1783-1912 --
Reading list.

As its title indicates, the volume deals with fundamental activities, ideas, and interests which have entered into the development of American society from the colonial period to the contemporary age. Whatever may be added to the record here presented, a consideration of these activities, ideas, and interests is basic, we believe, to any understanding of American history. - Prefatory note.

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