Christopher Collier

Examines the events and personalities, particularly President Andrew Jackson, that shaped the development of the United States during the first half of the nineteenth century.

Discusses the settling of the area between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains and the conflicting interests of the different groups involved--the Indians, cowboys, farmers, sheepherders, and railroad barons.

Examines the settlement of the area that became the southwestern portion of the United States, detailing how it evolved from land settled by Native Americans, to Spanish territory, to states that were pawns between the North and South prior to the Civil War.

Describes the struggles following the Civil War to decide how to deal with the newly freed slaves, through the years of Reconstruction, Jim Crow, sharecropping, and segregation.