This volume in the Graphic America series presents a quick account of the rapid expansion of America from roughly 1800 to 1860. Sechrist's narrative touches on the major landgrabs along the way, from the Louisiana Purchase to the Mexican-American War, as well as the population shifts that propelled pioneers along the Oregon Trail, drew the Mormons westward to Utah, and led to the gold- and silver-crazed boomtowns of Colorado and California. The text is brusque at best, and flat at worst, but it manages to touch on several important issues that will resonate with modern readers, such as divulging that many Americans felt that we had wrongly gone to war with Mexico. The perfunctory artwork, while ably capturing action and mood, doesn't quite present a sequential narrative but rather features two independent panels per page depicting scenes of soldiers in battle, sharecroppers breaking soil, hardy types enduring inclement weather, and speculators panning for gold. Overall, this is a decent choice to visually introduce history to readers who may have trouble digesting it in other formats.