The two-party system -- The log cabin and hard cider campaign -- Tyler, Clay, and the durability of the two-party system -- Abolitionism -- Westward expansion -- The Oregon Trail -- The allure and the danger of California -- The Mormons and their migration -- The politics of expansion -- Tyler and Texas -- The election of 1844 -- Texas annexation -- War with Mexico -- Armies along the Rio Grande -- The Monterrey campaign -- New Mexico, Chihuahua, and California -- Buena Vista -- Veracruz, Cerro Gordo, and the politics of expansion -- To the gates of Mexico City -- A conquered capital and a negotiated peace -- The political system and the controversies of expansion -- The election of 1848 -- The California gold rush -- California and the expansion of slavery -- The struggle for compromise

A sweeping history of the 1840s that captures America's enormous sense of possibility and shows how the extraordinary expansion of territories forced the nation to come to grips with the deep rift that would bring war just a decade later