The book analyzes the historical path taken by the United States from industrial society and the country's achievement of great power status at the beginning of the 20th century. to its transformation into the leading power of the bipolar world after 1945. In the context of world processes, the dynamics of economic, socio-cultural and political changes in American society are considered. The most important place is given to key moments - the "progressive era," the era of the "new course," the initial phase of the "Cold War."