1. What then is the American? Christopher Bigsby; 2. The American century Godfrey Hodgson; 3. The regions and regionalism Richard King; 4. Immigration to the United States in the twentieth century Roger Daniels; 5. Religion in the United States in the twentieth century: 1900-60 Peter W. Williams; 6. Shifting boundaries: religion and the United States 1960-present Wade Clark Roof and Natalie Caron; 7. The Hispanic background of the United States Nicolas Kanellos; 8. African Americans since 1900 Werner Sollors; 9. Asian Americans James Kyung-Jin Lee; 10. Women in the twentieth century S. J. Kleinberg; 11. Queer America Robert McRuer; 12. The road to Empire: the United States, war and the twentieth century Kenneth P. O'Brien; 13. The culture of the Cold War Stephen J. Whitfield; 14. Secret America: the CIA and American culture Hugh Wilford; 15. Vietnam and the 1960s John Hellmann; 16. New York City and the struggle of the modern Eric Homberger; 17. Music: sound: technology William Brooks; 18. African American music of the twentieth century Paul Oliver; 19. Hollywood cinema Walter Metz; 20. Popular culture Paul Buhle; 21. Theatre Brenda Murphy; 22. Society and the novel in twentieth-century America Emory Elliott; 23. 'Preferring the wrong way': the ethical diversity of US twentieth-century poetry Tim Woods.