..".author has the gift of finding the particular detail that illuminates the whole...the narrative comes out to be more than the sum of its parts."
-Emily Maxwell, The New Yorker Magazine

..".the struggle for independence, the creation of a new government, westward expansion, regional differences, Civil War, social and economic change, Depression and world wars-all described and related the one to another in a smooth and knowledgeable narrative."
-Nash K. Burger, The New York Times

..".the best short history that I have ever read."-Thurman Arnold

..".a model volume of its...