Includes index.

Bibliography: p. 469-552.

Maypoles and Pequots -- The maypole of Merry Mount -- Thomas Morton -- John Endicott -- The Pequot War -- The legacy of the Pequot War -- Founding fathers and merciless savages -- Timothy Dwight of Greenfield Hill -- John Adams -- Thomas Jefferson -- Jefferson, II: benevolence betrayed -- Driving Indians into Jefferson's Stony Mountains -- Philanthropists and Indian-haters -- Westward ho! with James Kirke Paulding -- An American romance in color: William Gilmore Simms -- Nicks in the woods: Robert Montgomery Bird -- Friend of the Indian: Colonel McKenney -- Professional westerner: Judge Hall -- Civilizers and conquerors -- The American rhythm: Mary Austin -- The manifest destiny of John Fiske -- Outcast of the islands: Henry Adams -- The open door of John Hay --Insular expert: Professor Worcester -- The strenuous life abroad: "marked severities" in the Philippines -- The strenuous life at home: to and beyond the Louisiana Purchase Exposition -- Children of light -- The occident express: from the Bay Colony to Indochina -- The ugly American -- The secret agent: Edward Geary Lansdale -- Covert savior of the Philippines -- Closing the circle of empire: Indochina -- The quiet American -- The new frontier -- The problem of the west.