Includes bibliographical references (pages 391-405) and index.

A brief history of America -- Land of the new ; America from 1600 to 1865 -- Land of the new: an economic history from the 1770s to the 1970s -- Approaching peak new ; the 1960s -- Turning point -- The 1970s ; an equal and opposite reaction -- The 1970s ; liberalism peaks and the counterrevolution begins -- The 1970s: building the counter-establishment -- The 1970s ; from a bicentennial pageant to a presidency -- The 1970s: neoliberal useful idiots -- Wrong turn -- The Reagan revolution -- Raw deal ; what happened in the 1980s didn't stay in the 1980s -- The rule of law -- The deregulation generation -- The culture of greed is good -- How Wall Street ate America -- Workers of the new world, you lose -- Insecurity is a feature, not a bug -- Socially liberal, fiscally conservative, generally complacent -- The permanent Reagan revolution -- The 1990s: restrained and reckless -- Same old same old -- Rewind, pause, stop ; the end of the new -- The politics of nostalgia and stagnation since the 1990s -- Ruthless beats reasonable -- Winners and losers in the class war -- American exceptionalism -- Make America new again -- Winners and losers (so far) in the digital revolution ;-- How the future will work -- This strategic inflection point -- What is to be done? -- The plague year and beyond.