Robert V. Remini's "A Short History of the United States" is an abbreviated, accessible, lively, and erudite narrative history that contains the essential facts about the discovery, settlement, growth, and development of the American nation and its institutions. Racing across the centuries--from the arrival and migration of Native Americans and the discovery of the New World by Europeans, the American Revolution, the Civil War, the Great Depression, up to the global conflicts of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries--it is a fascinating overview of a great nation's epochs and missteps, and a celebration of its achievements, its unique and enduring strengths, and its abiding commitment to individual freedoms.