Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- America and the Great War (1914-1921): "Home before the leaves fall"; "Too proud to fight"; Roosevelt to France? Over there! Wilson in Paris; "War to end all wars" -- Boom and the bust (1921-1933): Roaring twenties; Sunrise at Campobello; Harlem renaissance; Normalcy; "Keep cool with Coolidge"; "Lone eagle"; Peace and prosperity; "Two chickens in every pot"; Crash! "Happy days are here again"; New Deal -- FDR and the New Deal (1933-1939): Hundred days...and after; Hitler's games, the Berlin Olympics; "As goes Maine..."; FDR's "risky scheme"; "March of time"; Rebuilding America -- America's rendezvous with destiny (1939-1941): Man of the year; America on the road to war; "Sail on, o union strong and great"; "Sink the Bismarck!"; "If Hitler invaded Hell..." -- Leading the Grand Alliance (1941-1943): 1941, "a year of holding our breath"; Day of infamy; World at war; Battle of the Atlantic; America strikes back -- America victorious (1943-1945): Overlord; "Sun goes down on more suffering..."; Democracy, "the mustard on the hot dog"; Harry Truman, "the moon, the stars, and all the planets"; Flag of freedom -- Truman defends the free world (1945-1953) -- Cold War begins; Red stars in Hollywood; Ha Tikva, the hope of Israel; Berlin Airlift of 1948; "Give'em hell, Harry!"; Under the cloud of war; Korean conflict; Man from Independence -- Eisenhower and happy days (1953-1961): "I like Ike!"; Kremlin's long shadow; Freedom rising; "We will bury you!"; Ike's last years -- Passing the torch (1961-1969): New frontier; "Godspeed, John Glenn!"; "Eyeball to eyeball" over Cuba; Freedom on the march; 22 November 1963; "Idea whose time has come"; Choice, not an echo; Operation hope not, Churchill's funeral; "We shall overcome!"; Vietnam; 1968, annus horribilis -- Nixon's the one (1969-1974): "Give a damn!"; "Eagle has landed!"; Silent majority; Nixon to China; Election of 1972; Roe v. Wade, "raw judicial power"; Watergate spills over -- Years the locusts ate (1974-1981): "I'm not a Lincoln, I'm a Ford"; 1976, a bicentennial election; "Moral equivalent of war"; America held hostage; "USA! USA!" -- Reagan and revival (1981-1989): 1981, a new beginning; Evil empire; "Morning in America"; "We can do business..."; Reykjavik, the clash; Iran-contra; "Tear down this wall!"; Into the sunset -- Epilogue.