An analysis of the political leadership of Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln; the ideas of liberalism, nationalism, expansion, and industrialization; the social impact of religious revivals, slavery, and feminism; and the cataclysmic impact of the Mexican, Civil, and Spanish-American wars as the nation hurtled toward world power status after World War I.

A comprehensive survey of California from prehistory through Spanish exploration, Mexican rule, and evolution as an American state since 1850. Emphasis is placed on comparing myth to reality, new directions in interpretation, and demonstrating how past social, economic, and political events have had an impact on the present.