Red and blue appear in stark contrast with one another on the map of America. But the even more profound divide is the alienation in our hearts."

This work is a striking analysis of the struggles faced by American society, written from the perspective of a Chinese professor of history who spent 60 years of his life in the US. As both an insider and outsider to this country, Cho-yun Hsu is able to perceive what many other Americans may take for granted, and it is this viewpoint — together with his decades of experience teaching history at the University of Pittsburgh — that make this work so unusual and worthwhile.

This work analyzes American history through a wide range of topics, including culture, politics, economics, industrialization, class, ethnicity, the urban-rural divide, and more. Expertly analyzing the origins of the tension and conflict between different classes and ethnic groups in American society, this book seeks to offer a way forward from a humanistic perspective, in the hope that American society may be renewed through collective efforts, and find a new path.