Young America is a star-spangled account of the perilous, exuberant, dissension-filled first six decades of the United States.

The book opens with George Washington's triumphant journey to New York City for his inauguration as first president of the United States. It ends with Abraham Lincoln's solemn farewell to Springfield as he takes a train to Washington to become the sixteenth - and almost the last - president of a country torn by the secession of seven of its states.

In between, historian Francis Russell vividly details the events that first molded the American way of life and gave the young nation the will and ability to survive.