Commerce and industry thrive across the new nation, now one of the wealthiest on Earth. The Erie Canal brings big risk and bigger reward. In the South, cotton is king but slavery fuels a growing divide. Violence flares across the territories and abolitionists make a stand for freedom. The election of Lincoln is a harbinger of war.

The Transcontinental Railroad unites the nation and transforms the Heartland. Native American civilizations decline as farmers settle the continent. Cattle replace wild buffalo as king of the Plains; the Cowboy becomes a new American icon.

Americans conquer a new frontier--the modern city--with Carnegie's empire of steel as its backbone. Skyscrapers and the Statue of Liberty are symbols of the American Dream for millions of immigrants. Urban life introduces a new breed of social ills, set against the backdrop of stunning skylines and ambitious innovations.

Boom turns to bust when the stock market crash ushers in the Great Depression. Dust storms blanket the Midwest in darkness. Roosevelt's New Deal signals recovery; thousands find work on projects like the Hoover Dam and Mount Rushmore. Hope for the American future collides with world conflict brewing in Europe.

World War II transforms America into a global Superpower. The economy booms. Technology feeds the boom and a new age of consumerism is born. More than twenty thousand cars roll off production lines daily and - just like the Transcontinental Railroad more than a century before - the Interstate highways connect the country. After defending their country and their ideals the Greatest Generation comes home. Like the pioneers before them they push back the boundaries, plowing up over a million acres of virgin territory a year to create the suburbs. This pioneering spirit knows no bounds as first the jet age and then the space age takes America into the supersonic era. The first man walks on the moon - and plants the American flag. Optimism for the future prevails - but first America must deal with the past - and the issue of race. It's a second Civil War, but finally the Civil Rights movement brings the words of the Declaration of Independence home to ALL Americans - black and white.