From the origins of the English expansion under Henry VIII to the founding of the United States to the rollicking election of President Andrew Jackson, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Walter A. McDougall rescues from myth or oblivion the brave, brilliant, and flawed people who made America great: women and men, native-born and immigrant; German, Latin, African, and British; as well as farmers, engineers, planters, and merchants; Protestants, Freemasons, Catholics, and Jews; and -- last but not least -- the American scofflaws, speculators, rogues, and demagogues.

With an insightful approach to the nearly two hundred and fifty years spanning America's beginnings, McDougall offers his readers an understanding of the uniqueness of the "American character" and how it has shaped the wide-ranging course of historical events. McDougall explains that Americans have always beenin a unique position of enjoying "more opportunity to pursue their ambitions ... than any other people in history."

The first installment of a trilogy that will eventually bring the story of America up to the present day, Freedom Just Around the Corner is "so original ... that you can read any five pages of this book and feel that you are encountering the American story through fresh eyes" (Washington Post Book World).