The American Story presents a balanced and manageable overview of the United States as an unfolding story of national development, integrating social and political history into a coherent and compelling narrative.

Acknowledging the nation's rich diversity of class, race, gender, and ethnicity, this edition tells the story both of the people who, through their collective and individual endeavors, shaped the past and of the demands that events placed upon them. This text, based on the bestselling America Past and Present text, is presented in a highly affordable Penguin Academic edition.