Forging America speaks to both the complexities of historical experience and the meanings of the past for our present-day lives. Warning against the assumption of preordained outcomes, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Steve Hahn focuses the reader''s attention on those moments when historical change occurs. He weaves a history that is continental and transnational, a history of the many peoples whose experiences and aspirations--often times involving struggle and conflict--went into the forging of a nation.