Blends personal narratives and accounts of the century's largest events to create a panoramic view of the making and unmaking of American democracy and global power.

"We are still in the making" -- Origins of the American century -- "To start to make this world over" : imperialism and Progressivism, 1898-1912 -- Refining and exporting Progressivism : Wilson's New Freedom and the Great War, 1913-1919 -- Prosperity's precipice : the paradoxes of the 1920s -- A twentieth-century president : Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first term, 1932-1936 -- A rendezvous with destiny, 1936-1941 -- The watershed of war : at home and abroad, 1942-1945 -- A rising superpower, 1944-1954 -- In at least modest comfort : postwar prosperity and its discontents -- A season of change : liberals and the limits of reform, 1960-1966 -- May day : Vietnam and the crisis of the 1960s -- What side are you on? : the battle for middle America, 1968-1974 -- "A season of darkness" : the troubled 1970s -- The new Gilded Age, 1980-2000 -- United we stand, divided we fall, since 2000.