This book might seem on its face to be redundant. Many of the events in this story are well-known. Most kids have to take World History, American History, and Government before they graduate high school, so what makes this book important? Is it the way the book urges the reader to not only know the correct facts about American history, but to try to reconcile one's self to that history. The book encourages its reader to belong to that history by understanding the way those events literally shaped the America that exists today.
What led America to empire was technology, one might say, and also the way that the Native Americans shaped early American life, instilling a kind of diligent work ethic, because life in the New World was difficult. Even in the hundred years that follow, when towns were established, that tenacious spirit existed among them in their communities. Eventually, the nation was swept by pride, and eventually, when all 50 states were established and annexed, the nation's tenacious spirit still existed.
So where is the tenacity today? Perhaps the answer suggested by the book is that America's cultural bend toward production can still be found in the nation's attention to technology, industry, and competition. Those elements have often been mis-applied as well, as when economic interests against Communism led to horrific wars in Korea and Vietnam, which is basically where the book leaves off. Surely, the correct response to these facts is to find the positive aspects of American culture, while admitting that there are implicit dangers in the American zeitgeist.
