Alistair’s Cooke’s America is now widely recognised as a classic, an irresistibly readable guide to what has made this powerful democracy grow & survive through 200 years of unfolding drama. Cooke wrote & broadcast on every facet of American life with unique wit & wisdom & this is his ‘personal’ history of America. It is also the bestselling book that accompanied his legendary television series. Beginning with the controversial discovery of America & the actions of the Founding Fathers, Cooke writes with engaging wisdom about the explorers who first put the country on the map. The narrative sweeps with the pioneers who tamed the Wild West, the soldiers who fought to independence & through to the tycoons who built great fortunes. From the Mayflower to the gold rush, the jazz age to pearl Harbour, with portraits as varied as John D. Rockefeller & Martin Luther King, here is the American story in all its triumphs & failures, grandeurs & tragedies. It is the defining portrait of a nation.