Instruct: Classify a review as either positive or negative.
Query: Great view of how the past informs today's America

This book is an amazing tour through cultural, legal and philosophical ideas in America from the Civil War through the First World War. It does so in narrative and (mostly) chronological order, making it much more compelling than a textbook. The narrative form also helps expose the conditions that allowed certain ideas to flourish, rather than presenting a simplistic view of x followed by y followed by z. As a bonus, the reader gets to enjoy a well-painted picture of the elite intelligentsia and some window into daily life in America at large during these time periods.My only complaint is that it occasionally wandered or backtracked and I was never sure whether newly introduced ideas and people would remain important or central as we moved forward.