The Founding Fathers -- The Battle of New Orleans -- The Indian country -- The transcontinental railroad -- Grant and reconstruction -- Theodore Roosevelt and the beginning of the American century -- Democracy, Eisenhower, and the war in Europe -- The war in the Pacific -- The legacy of World War II -- Vietnam -- Writing in and about America -- War stories: Crazy Horse and Custer and Pegasus Bridge -- Writing about Nixon -- Writing about men in action, 1992-2001 -- The National D-Day Museum -- American racism --Women's rights and immigration -- The United States and nation building -- Nothing like it in the world.