Ⅰ．THE COLONIAL PERIOD(1600-1783) 1
The Puritan Mode of Thought from Daniel Boorstin，The Americans 4
Political and Social Structure in Colonial Virginia＆by Bernard Bailyn 20
The Spirit of＇76＆by Carl Lotus Becker 44
Benjamin Franklin 70
1．Meet Dr．Franklin＆by Carl Van Doren 70
2．Benjamin Franklin：Philosophical Revolutionist＆by Bernhard Knollenberg 79
Ⅱ．THE NEW NATION(1783-1830) 85
The Federal Compromise from Carl Van Doren，The Great Rehearsal 88
Thomas Jefferson 106
1．＇Jefferson Still Survives—＇＆by Saul K．Padover 106
2．Which Jefferson Do You Quote？＆by Clinton Rossiter 114
Popular Characteristics of the American People from Henry Adams，History of the United States of America，as edited and condensed by Herbert Agar in The Formative Years 124
An Era of Good Feelings from George Dangerfield，The Era of Good Feelings 139
The Transcontinental Treaty with Spain from Samuel Flagg Bemis，John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy 157
Ⅲ．FERMENT AND CHANGE(1830-1850) 177
Veto from Arthur M．Schlesinger，Jr．，The Age of Jackson 180
Reform Movements in the Jacksonian Period 194
1．The Reforms of the 1830＇s from Robert E．Riegel，Young America，1830-1840 194
2．The Utopians from Alice Felt Tyler，Freedom＇s Ferment 217
Extension of the Area of Freedom from Albert K．Weinberg，Manifest Destiny 245
Ⅳ．PRELUDE TO WAR(1850-1861) 273
John Caldwell Calhoun—The Marx of the Master Class from Richard Hofstadter，The American Political Tradition 276
To Make Them Stand in Fear from Kenneth M．Stampp，The Peculiar Institution 299
Critical Years from Herbert Agar，The Price of Union 324
Peace or War from Allan Nevins，The War for the Union 346
Ⅴ．WAR AND ITS AFTERMATH(1861-1876) 365
Thunder over the Cabinet from Carl Sandburg，Abraham Lincoln：The War Years 368
Roads Leading South from Bruce Catton，A Stillness at Appomattox 388
There Is No Peace from Paul H．Buck，The Road to Reunion 409
Reconstruction—Black and White from John Hope Franklin，Reconstruction 433