America's parchment regime: the original character of the American democratic republic and the culture supporting it
1789-1817: the formative years, the Federalist Party era, and Jeffersonianism
1817-1840: the eras of "good feelings" and Jacksonian democracy
1840-1877: expansion, sectionalism, the Civil War, and Reconstruction
1877-1920: the Gilded Age, the Progressive Era, and World War I
1920-1945: the "Roaring twenties", the Great Depression, and World War II
1945-1960: post-World War II America and the Cold War
1960-1980: the welfare state, cultural upheaval, and the reign and decline of liberalism
1980-present: the upsurge of conservatism, economic transformation, and post-Cold War America
Analysis and conclusion: how and why the American democratic republic has been transformed.