This is an exploration of America through the history of its art. It is a companion volume to the eight-part BBC-Television series. The book begins where American art itself began: five centuries ago, wth the Native Americans and the first Spanish invaders in the Southwest through to the present. In between, it tells the story of how America's artistic tradition was created: by public taste, by a landscape of great variety; by a culture that stretched into dozens of foreign lands; and by numerous painters, sculptors and architects.