From 1860, when the election Abraham Lincoln triggered the secession of the Deep South states and ending in 1920 when women were granted the right to vote, an acclaimed historian narrates the major episodes of the era and introduces the key individuals who helped remake American democracy, or whose actions spelled its doom.

"The story begins with a hand curled around another man’s throat. This is Roman justice: Emperor Tiberius first dispatches a traitor--a friend he once trusted with the city--then the man's whole family and all of his friends. It is as if he never existed. Into this fevered forum, a child is born. His mother is Agrippina, granddaughter of Emperor Augustus. But their imperial blood is neither balm nor protection. Rather, it is a liability. Blood is...