本书按年代顺序分十章介绍从殖民地时期到二十一世纪初美国社会和历史的演变，每章都配有相关年代美国社会简介，并精选四五篇文章介绍美国历史上的重大事件、热点话题和知名人物，以帮助读者进一步了解每一历史时期的政治、经济和文化背景。读者通过阅读本书，能理清美国历史发展的脉络，获得对美国历史全景式的认知，从而能更好地了解美国这个社会和文化多元的国家。

Part One The Colonial Period ( 1607 - 1776)

 Sedion A Texts

I. The European Explorers

II. The British Colonies

 Section B Supplementary Readings

Passage One Native Americans and Europeans

Passage Two Why Did They Come to America?

Passage Three Life in Colonial America

Passage Four The Evolution of Thanksgiving

 Section C Exercises

Part Two The Revolutionary Period (1763 -1789)

 Section A Texts

I. Conflict Between the American Colonies and the Mother Country

II. War for Independence

III. The New Constitution and Government

 Section B Supplementary Readings 

Passage One A Century of Imperial War

Passage Two The Issue of Representation

Passage Three Thomas Paine

Passage Four James Madison' s Contribution to the Constitution

Passage Five The Independence Hall

 Section C Exercises

Part Three The Young Republic ( 1790 - 1828)

 Section A Texts

I. The washington Administration

II. The John Adams Administration

I!1. The Jefferson Administration

IV. The Madison Administration

V. The James Monroe Administration

VI. The John Quincy Adams Administration

 Section B Supplementary Readings

Passage One Alexander Hamilton and Finance

         in the Washington Administration

Passage Two The Louisiana Purchase

Passage Three Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase

Passage Four The Monroe Doctrine

 Section C Exercises

Part Four Western Expansion and Reform (1829 -1859)

 Section A Texts

I. The Jackson Administration

II. Manifest Destiny and the Mexican American War

II1. The Gold Rush

IV. Movement to the West

V. Reform

VI. Slavery and the Drift Toward the Civil War

 Section B Supplementary Readings

Passage One The Early Banking System

Passage Two The Indian Removal Act of 1830

Passage Three The Underground Railroad

Passage Four Harriet Tubman

Passage Five Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Passage Six  Horace Mann

 Section C Exercises

Part Five The Civil War and Reconstruction (1860 -1877)

  Section A Texts

I. The Civil War

II. Reconstruction

  Section B Supplementary Readings

Passage One First Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln

Passage Two The Gettysburg Address

Passage Three Freedmen' s Bureau

Passage Four Ku Klux Klan

Passage Five General Robert E. Lee

 Section C Exercises

Part Six The Gilded Age (1865 -1900)

 Section A Texts

I. Industrialization

II. Urbanization

III. Immigration

IV. The Rise of U. S. Imperialism

 Section B Supplementary Readings

Passage One Immigration in the United States

Passage Two Tenements

Passage Three Rockefeller and Standard Oil -- Rags to Riches

Passage Four Yellow Journalism

Passage Five Joseph Pulitzer

 Section C Exercises

Part Seven The Progressive Era and World War I (1890 -1917)

 Section A Texts

I. The Progressive Movement

II. World War I

III. The End of the Progressive Agenda

 Section B Supplementary Readings

Passage One Jane Addams

 Passage Two The Spoils System Versus the Merit System

 Passage Three American Life at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

 Passage Four Theodore Roosevelt and Conservation

 ;Passage Five World War I on the Home Front

 Passage Six  The,Federal Reserve System

  Section C Exercises

Part Eight Prosperity and Depression ( 1918 - 1933)

  section A Texts

I. Prosperity: the Roaring Twenties

 II. The Great Depression

  Section B Supplementary Readings

Passage One Henry Ford

Passage Two Prohibition

Passage Three F. Scott Fitzgerald and the American Dream

Passage Four Herbert Hoover

 Section C Exercises

Part Nine The New Deal and World War 11 (1933 -1945)

 Sedion A Texts

I. The New Deal

II. World War II

 Section B Supplementary Readings

Passage One Social Security in the United States

Passage Two Isolationism

Passge Three The Cruel Injustice of Japanese Internment:

         Camp Harmony

 Passage Four The Dust Storm: Mass Exodus from the Plains

 Sedion C Exercises

Part Ten The Modern Era (1946 - present)

 Sedion A Texts

  I. The United States in the 1950s

  II. The United States in the 1960s

  III. The United States in the 1970s

  IV. The United States from 1980 to 2000

  V. The United States Enters the 21st Century

Section B Supplementary Readings

  Passage One The Truman Doctrine

  Passage Two I Have a Dream

  Passage Three Rosa Parks

  Passage Four Malcom X

Section C Exercises

Appendixes

Appendix I:  Map of the United States

Appendix II: Outstanding Events in American History

  Appendix m: Historical Documents

Bibliography