This is Volume 1 of an anthology of American history showing that history can be analyzed and understood by means of patterns, or topics, that have a measure of order and unity. Each chapter has been organized around a significant theme. The political, economic, social and intellectual themes are stressed. The nation's geographical foundations, war as a social institution, and the intellectual problems in agrarianism and urbanism point up elements in the mainstream of American development that have frequently been neglected in books of readings. This book has 30 chapters.