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This is a collection of essays which reflect on a peculiarly American way of imagining the past. The authors discuss the birth and evolution of historiography in America, from its origins in the late 19th century, through to the present. The first part of the book examines exceptionalism, gender, economic history, social theory, race and immigration and multiculturalism. The three American centuries are discussed in the second part, and the third part of the book is a chronological survey of non-American histories, including that of Western civilization, ancient history, the middle ages, early modern and modern Europe, Russia and Asia. Together the essays reveal the perspective American historians have brought to the past of their own nation as well as that of the world. Formerly writing from a conviction that America had a singular destiny, American historians have gradually come to share the viewpoints of historians in other countries, the result is the virtual disappearance of what was a distinctive American voice.