This two-color value priced text retains the impeccable scholarship and elegant writing style that Alan Brinkley has brought to all of his books. It provides students and instructors with a reliable, comprehensive account of the American past in which no single approach or theme predominates. It includes a scrupulous account of American political and diplomatic history and explores areas of history such as social, cultural, urban, racial and ethnic history, the history of the West and South, environmental history, the history of women and gender, and American history in a global context.