The unfinished nation : a concise history of the American people / Alan Brinkley.

Volume one of this United States history textbook covers the pre-Columbian era up until the end of Reconstruction. ; volume 2 covers the post- Civil War era to new developments in twenty-first-century America, including the war in Iraq, George W. Bush's second term, the collapse of the mortgage market and subsequent recession, and the first 100 days of Barack Obama's presidency. It invites students to think critically about the many forces that continually create the United States. It shows the diversity and complexity of the nation and our understanding of its history--one that continues to evolve both in the events of the present and in our reexamination of new evidence and perspectives on the past. It features the ways popular culture has affected the lives of Americans throughout history, presents the U.S. in a global context, and demonstrates how our history is woven together with other nations' histories.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

v. 1. To 1877: The collision of cultures -- Transplantations and borderlands -- Society and culture in provincial America -- The empire in transition -- The American revolution -- The Constitution and the new republic -- The Jeffersonian era -- Varieties of American nationalism -- Jacksonian America -- America's economic revolution -- Cotton, slavery, and the old South -- Antebellum culture and reform -- The impending crisis -- The Civil War -- Reconstruction and the new South --

v. 2. From 1865: Reconstruction and the new South -- The conquest of the far west -- Industrial supremacy -- The age of the city -- From crisis to empire -- The progressives -- America and the great war -- The new era -- The Great Depression -- The New Deal -- The global crisis, 1921-1941 -- America in a world at war -- The Cold War -- The affluent society -- Civil rights, Vietnam, and the ordeal of liberalism -- The crisis of authority -- From "the age of limits" to the age of Reagan -- The age of globalization.