Updates to this 3rd edition includes:

• The one-step-forward, one-half-step-back pace of the economy’s recovery from one of the worst recessions in U.S. history. Elements here would include the federal government’s efforts; the stubborn unemployment problem and the deepening divide between the very wealthy, and the poor and middle class.
• The rise of the Tea Party, and the deep and bitter divisions between political parties and even geographic regions of the country. This would include a look at Obamacare as symbolic of the issues sparking partisan rancor, as well as the 2010 and 2012 election results.
• The country’s delicate – and precarious – balancing act between functioning as the world’s preeminent economic, military and political power, and a growing feeling among many Americans that the rest of the world should take care of its own problems.
• The rapid rise and impact of social media such as Twitter and Facebook on nearly every aspect of American life, from popular culture to politics to crime-fighting to cyber-bullying – and the potential and realities of government and others spying and prying on us.