"The Birth of Modern America "tells in clear and lively prose how Americans struggled with modernity in both its cultural and its economic forms. Richly illustrated, it uses the visual images of the time as evidence of the changes it explores. It is anecdotal as well as analytic, filled with stories about evangelical enthusiasms, amusement parks, the first Miss America contest. It takes the reader into the streets of Tulsa during the race riot of 1921 and into Aimee Semple McPherson's gospel Temple. It examines how ethnic and religious groups appropriated elements of minstrelsy in "The Jazz Singer" and "Amos 'n Andy." In all this makes a strong contribution to understanding American society in the interwar years.

Steven Mintz is the John and Rebecca Moores Professor of History and Director of the American Cultures Program at the University of Houston. He is President-Elect of H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online, an international consortium of scholars who use new technologies to advance teaching and research. His twelve books include the standard history of the American family, Domestic Revolutions: A Social History of American Family Life (1988; co-authored with Susan Kellogg); and a major interpretation of antebellum reform, Moralists & Modernizers: America’s Pre-Civil War Reformers (1995). His most recent book, Huck’s Raft: A History of American Childhood (2004), received the Association of American Publishers R.R. Hawkins Award for the Outstanding Scholarly Book of 2004; the Organization of American Historians 2004 Merle Curti Award for the best book in social history; and the Texas Institute of Letters Carr P. Collins Award for the best non-fiction book of 2004. For Blackwell, he has edited Mexican American Voices (2000), Native American Voices, Second Edition (2000), and, with Randy Roberts, Hollywood’s America, Third Edition (2001).