The final volume of Burns's classic history of the American Experiment, from the election of FDR to the final days of the Cold War "Crosswinds of Freedom" is an articulate and incisive examination of the United States during its rise to become the world's sole superpower. Here is a young democracy transformed by the Great Depression, the Second World War, the Cold War, the rapid pace of technological change, and the distinct visions of nine presidents. Spanning fifty-six years and touching on many corners of the nation's complex cultural tapestry, Burns's work is a remarkable look at the forces that gave rise to the "American Century."

Includes index.

Part I. What kind of freedom? The crisis of leadership. The divided legacy -- The "hundred days" of action -- "Discipline and direction under leadership"? -- The arc of conflict. Class war in America -- "Lenin or Christ" -- or a path between? -- The politics of tumult -- Appeal to the people -- The crisis of majority rule. Court-packing: the switch in time -- Congress-purging: the broken spell -- Deadlock at the center -- The fission of ideas -- The people's art -- Part II. Strategies of freedom. Freedom under siege. The zigzag road to war -- The war of two worlds -- The production of war -- The Rainbow Coalition embattled -- Cold War: the fearful giants. The death and life of Franklin D. Roosevelt -- The long telegram -- The spiral of fear -- The price of suspicion -- The imperium of freedom. The technology of freedom -- The language of freedom -- Dilemmas of freedom -- The free and the unfree. The Boston Irish -- The southern poor -- The invisible Latins -- The revolutionary Asians -- Part III. Liberation struggles. Striding toward freedom. Onward, Christian soldiers -- Marching as to war -- We shall overcome -- The world turned upside down. People of this generation -- Rolling thunder -- Into the quicksand -- Songs of the sixties -- Liberty, equality, sisterhood. Breaking through the silken curtain -- The liberation of women -- The personal is political -- Part IV. The crosswinds of freedom. Prime time: Peking and Moscow. Finding China -- Peace without peace -- Foreign policy: the faltering experiments -- Vice and Virtue. Watergate: a morality tale -- Crime and punishment -- Carter: the arc of morality -- Gun and bible -- The culture of the workshop. The dicing game of science -- The rich and the poor -- Crossways, land and sky -- Part V. The rebirth of freedom? The kaleidoscope of thought. Habits of individualism -- Kinesis: the southern Californians -- Superspectatorship -- The New Yorkers -- The conservative mall -- The decline of leadership. Republicans: waiting for Mr. Right -- The structure of disarray -- Realighment?: waiting for lefty -- A rebirth of leadership? -- Memories of the future: a personal epilogue.