American history is more than a story of wars and breakthroughs, and in this perceptive 1993 overview, Ronald Takaki traces the economic and political history of Native Americans, African Americans, Mexicans, Japanese, Chinese, Irish, and Jewish people in America. Scanning four centuries of racism, conflict, and assimilation, Takaki discusses the Great Migration, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, the Trail of Tears, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Japanese internment.

"Humane, well-informed, accessible…. It is clearly not intended to divide Americans but rather to teach them to value the nation's inescapable diversity."—NYTBR