Throughout time, from ancient Rome to modern Britain, the great empires built and maintained their domination through force of arms and political power. But not the United States. America has dominated the world in a new, peaceful, and pervasive way--through the continued creation of staggering wealth. In this authoritative, engrossing history, John Steele Gordon captures as never before the true source of our nation's global influence: wealth and the capacity to create more of it.

Acknowledgments

Introduction: The Pursuit of Happiness

PART I

A VAST AND ROARING WILDERNESS

Chapter One: The Land, the People, and the Law

Chapter Two: In the Name of God and Profit

Chapter Three: The Atlantic Empire

PART II

A COUNTRY THAT COULD MAKE ITSELF AS IT PLEASED

Transition: The American Revolution

Chapter Four: The Hamiltonian Creation

Chapter Five: A Terrible Synergy

Chapter Six: Labor Improbus Omnia Vincit

Chapter Seven: The Jeffersonian Destruction

Chapter Eight: New Jersey Must Be Free!

Chapter Nine: Chaining the Lightning of Heaven

Chapter Ten: Whales, Wood, Ice, and Gold

PART III

THE EMERGING COLOSSUS

Transition: The Civil War

Chapter Eleven: Capitalism Red in Tooth and Claw

Chapter Twelve: Doing Business with Glass Pockets

Chapter Thirteen: Was There Ever Such a Business!

Chapter Fourteen: A Cross of Gold

PART IV

THE AMERICAN CENTURY BEGINS

Transition: The First World War

Chapter Fifteen: Getting Prices Down to the Buying Power

Chapter Sixteen: Fear Itself

Chapter Seventeen: Converting Retreat into Advance

PART V

A NEW ECONOMIC REVOLUTION

Transition: The Second World War

Chapter Eighteen: The Great Postwar Boom

Chapter Nineteen: The Crisis of the New Deal Order

Chapter Twenty: A New Economy, a New World, a New War

Notes

Bibliography

Index