An investigation of North American history in the seven centuries before the founding of the United States, looking at how the sequential cultural layers defined by people the author calls the progenitors, conquistadores, traders, planters, imperialists, and Atlanteans contributed to the society, culture, and politics of the U.S. as it emerged after the Revolutionary War.

Prologue : layered pasts -- Progenitors -- Legacies of power from medieval North America -- Legacies of conquest from medieval Europe -- Conquistadores -- Crusades of the Christ-bearers to the Americas -- Crusades of the protestants to new worlds -- Traders -- Native Americans and the power of trade -- Epidemics, war, and the remapping of a continent -- Planters -- Searching for order in new and old England -- Planting patriarchy in New England and Virginia -- Dutch, French, Spanish, and English counterpoints -- Imperialists -- Monarchical power reborn -- Planters besieged -- Revolution, war, and a new transatlantic order -- Atlanteans -- Producing and consuming in an Atlantic empire -- People in motion, enslaved and free -- Contending for a continent -- Gloomy and dark days -- Epilogue : present pasts.