More concise, livelier, and broader in coverage than other similar texts, this popular overview of American life since 1945 offers a clearly-written, authoritative interpretive narrative that pays special attention to major trends in foreign policy, mass culture, social history, gender, politics, civil rights, economics, and political culture. Organized both chronologically and topically, it provides balanced insights and demonstrates the ways in which different kinds of history blend together, and also provides a broad view of “politics.”