Table of Contents

	List of Maps and Illustrations	p. xi
	Author's Note	p. xiii
	Preface: The Pure Physics of Union	p. xv
	When America's Story was Dominated By Wood, 1785-1805	p. 1
	A View across the Ridge	p. 3
	Drawing a Line in the Sand	p. 6
	Peering through the Trees	p. 17
	The Frontier and the Thesis	p. 24
	The Wood Was Become Grass	p. 32
	Encounters with the Sioux	p. 41
	First Lady of the Plains	p. 49
	High Plains Rafters	p. 52
	Passing the Gateway	p. 55
	Shoreline Passage	p. 65
	When America's Story Went Beneath the Earth, 1809-1901	p. 73
	The Lasting Benefit of Harmony	p. 75
	The Science That Changed America	p. 77
	Drawing the Colors of Rocks	p. 80
	The Wellspring of Knowledge	p. 83
	The Tapestry of Underneath	p. 88
	Setting the Lures	p. 91
	Off to See the Elephant	p. 96
	The West, Revealed	p. 104
	The Singular First Adventure of Kapurats	p. 113
	The Men Who Gave Us Yellowstone	p. 129
	Diamonds, Sex, and Race	p. 139
	When the American Story Traveled by Water, 1803-1900	p. 163
	Journeys to the Fall Line	p. 165
	The Streams beyond the Hills	p. 171
	The Pivot and the Feather	p. 180
	The First Big Dig	p. 188
	The Wedded Waters of New York	p. 196
	The Linkman Cometh	p. 214
	That OF Man River	p. 222
	When the American Story was Fanned by Fire, 1811-1956	p. 239
	May the Roads Rise Up	p. 241
	Rain, Steam, and Speed	p. 248
	The Annihilation of the In-Between	p. 252
	The Immortal Legacy of Crazy Judah	p. 259
	Colonel Eisenhower's Epiphanic Expedition	p. 280
	The Colossus of Roads	p. 294
	And Then We Looked Up	p. 312
	The Twelve-Week Crossing	p. 316
	When the American Story was Told Through Metal, 1835-Tomorrow	p. 329
	To Go, but Not to Move	p. 331
	The Man Who Tamed the Lightning	p. 335
	The Signal Power of Human Speech	p. 351
	With Power for One and All	p. 357
	Lighting the Corn, Powering the Prairie	p. 375
	The Talk of the Nation	p. 385
	Making Money from Air	p. 396
	Television: The Irresistible Force	p. 406
	The All of Some Knowledge	p. 417
	Epilogue	p. 429
	Acknowledgments	p. 435
	Bibliography	p. 441
	Index	p. 451

Terms of Use