Here, in paper back at last, is the famous book that has found its way into more than a million and a half American homes, that was hailed by Samuel Eliot Morison as "Magnificent". It is the book that grew out of Alistair Cooke's forty-year love affair with his adopted country, out of pursuit of the American essence, his exploration of the byways of our past, his sharing and observing of our present. Here is one of the most praised and cherished books of our time in all its splendor, with all the original pictures in full color and black-and-white - an incomparable Cooke's tour of American history, a uniquely fresh and human portrait of us as we were and are.