I had to buy this book for a college class and I have to say that I am very impressed. Through a series of essays and primary accounts a social history of the age is brought forth, dealing with such subjects as The New South, African-American Politics Under Jim Crow, and Progressivism. These essays, by historians such as Richard Hofstadter and C. Vann Woodward, and first-hand accounts, from such notable people as W.E.B. Dubois, Carl Sandburg, Booker T. Washington, William Jennings Bryan, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, presents a history devoid of all the wars and politics of the upper elite, but instead focuses on more social issues and the everyday American. Many topics are dealt with in this book and it shows just how complex American society was in this changing time.