Offering first-hand accounts of the seminal moments in 500 years of US history, this book is divided into chronological sections, each with an introduction: discovery, including exploration and first settlement; independence, the Revolution and wars against British rule; destiny, movements West and the split between North and South; frontier, including the pioneers of the Amercian West and the Indian Wars; and finally century, the hundred years that saw the USA become a superpower on the world stage. Witnesses are some of the greatest writers, movers and shakers of American history, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ernest Hemmingway, Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, Neil Armstrong, Walt Whitman and Arthur Millers.