Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Praise
Dedication
Epigraph
List of Maps and Illustrations
Author’s Note
Preface: The Pure Physics of Union
PART I: WHEN AMERICA’S STORY WAS DOMINATED BY WOOD, 1785–1805
A View across the Ridge
Drawing a Line in the Sand
Peering through the Trees
The Frontier and the Thesis
The Wood Was Become Grass
Encounters with the Sioux
First Lady of the Plains
High Plains Rafters
Passing the Gateway
Shoreline Passage
PART II: WHEN AMERICA’S STORY WENT BENEATH THE EARTH, 1809–1901
The Lasting Benefit of Harmony
The Science That Changed America
Drawing the Colors of Rocks
The Wellspring of Knowledge
The Tapestry of Underneath
Setting the Lures
Off to See the Elephant
The West, Revealed
The Singular First Adventure of Kapurats
The Men Who Gave Us Yellowstone
Diamonds, Sex, and Race
PART III: WHEN THE AMERICAN STORY TRAVELED BY WATER, 1803–1900
Journeys to the Fall Line
The Streams beyond the Hills
The Pivot and the Feather
The First Big Dig
The Wedded Waters of New York
The Linkman Cometh
That Ol’ Man River
PART IV: WHEN THE AMERICAN STORY WAS FANNED BY FIRE, 1811–1956
May the Roads Rise Up
Rain, Steam, and Speed
The Annihilation of the In-Between
The Immortal Legacy of Crazy Judah
Colonel Eisenhower’s Epiphanic Expedition
The Colossus of Roads
And Then We Looked Up
The Twelve-Week Crossing
PART V: WHEN THE AMERICAN STORY WAS TOLD THROUGH METAL, 1835–TOMORROW
To Go, but Not to Move
The Man Who Tamed the Lightning
The Signal Power of Human Speech
With Power for One and All
Lighting the Corn, Powering the Prairie
The Talk of the Nation
Making Money from Air
Television: The Irresistible Force
