ABSTRACT
American history, we are told, is the story of how rugged individuals left the tyranny of the Old World to conquer the wilderness and build a better life in the New. Over time they created the first new nation, one that, in Thomas Jefferson's words, holds "these truths as self-evident, that all men are created equal. They are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
