AMERICAN HISTORY: A VERY SHORT INTRODUCTION (PB)

This brief history of America from an acclaimed American historian spans the earliest migrations to the present, reflecting Paul S. Boyer's interests in social, intellectual, and cultural history, including popular culture and religion. It reflects his personal view of American history, in which a sense of paradox and irony loom large. While noting positive achievements - political, economic, social, and cultural - he also discusses the United States's failures to live up to its oft-stated ideals, showing that although America has figured in the world's imagination (and its own self-image) as a "land of opportunity" offering "liberty and justice for all," the reality has often fallen short.