The author, a historian, looks at history from the angle of vision of eight American novelists: Sinclair Lewis, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe, John Steinbeck, John Dos Passos, James T. Farrell, Richard Wright. Selections from the major works of these authors are analyzed and offered as illustrative material to enhance the understanding of an era of rapid social change.

The novelist as witness to history [Thomas Wolfe] --Knockers and boosters [Sinclair Lewis] -- The pleasure domes of West Egg and Tarmes [F. Scott Fitzgerald] -- The decay of Yoknapatawpha County [William Faulkner] -- Lethal gases in Altamont and Libya Hill [Thomas Wolfe] -- The lost paradise [John Steinbeck] -- The rebels [John Dos Passos] -- The world of Fifty-eighth Street [James T. Farrell] -- The volcano of anger [Richard Wright] -- Fiction as history.