Includes bibliographical references (p. 469-476) and index.

War -- Return to America -- Celebrity -- Vice-presidential candidate -- Warfare -- Imperialist America -- Anti-imperialist -- Election results -- The strenuous life -- West -- Rural upbringing -- Urban upbringing -- Clemens goes west -- Grand tours -- Western writings -- Continental America -- The Philippines -- Pan-American Exposition -- Race -- Yale bicentennial -- Racial America -- Back to Hannibal -- Roosevelt and race -- Livy -- Huckleberry Finn -- Roosevelt and the Philippines -- Placating the South -- Oil -- The Kanawha -- Corporate America -- Roosevelt as reformer -- The Gilded Age -- Bankruptcy -- In the White House -- Trustbusting -- Our life is wrecked -- Children -- A seventieth birthday -- Susy -- America at home -- Bully father -- President in his own right -- Global visions -- Bereft and adrift -- Young people -- Peace -- Carnegie -- America at peace -- Late pleasures -- TR steps down -- Jean -- Funerals -- Bull Moose -- Afterward.

Presents a narrative history of the United States from 1890 to 1910, exploring such major themes as nationalism, racism, industrialization, and imperialism as reflected in the actions and writings of the era's two most famous figures.