Describes journeys through the West and Pacific Northwest and the changes that the country is going through.

pt. I. Last Redoubt of the Nation-State. 1. Fort Leavenworth -- pt. II. The New Wilderness. 2. Fort Leavenworth to St. Louis. 3. The Average American City. 4. The "American Bottoms" 5. Omaha: Plugged In. 6. Against the Current -- pt. III. In the Future Now. 7. Like Teheran and Sao Paulo. 8. One of the World's Biggest Economies. 9. Low-End Cosmopolitanism -- pt. IV. The Agent of History. 10. History Moves North. 11. In Search of the Nonexistent. 12. Upheavals and Transformations. 13. Across the Great Wall of China -- pt. V. Separate Nations. 14. The First Oasis. 15. Individualists. 16. "Our Culture Is Getting Real Thin" 17. Arizona: A Balkan Map? 18. Hopi Silences and the Land of Awe. 19. Veterans Day. 20. Onstage in Santa Fe and Taos. 21. The Greyhound Underclass. 22. A Desert Culture. 23. The Dry-Land Sea -- pt. VI. The New Empire. 24. Imperial Outpost and the Small Town. 25. The New Localism. 26. An Empire Wilderness? 27. Canada: The Wild Card. 28. Vancouver: Twenty-first-Century Patriotism. 29. Toward Cathay -- pt. VII. The Meaning of Vicksburg. 30. History in Three Dimensions.