The United States of America now celebrates two hundred and fifty years since its foundation. In that time, just thirteen English-speaking colonies conquered an inhabited land to become the world’s richest and most powerful union.

When the Founding Fathers liberated themselves from their British masters, they wrote a constitution that was steeped in classical ideals of liberty, yet blind to slavery and Native American rights, failings that drove them eventually to civil war.

America recovered. It espoused mass immigration, raw capitalism and extreme devolution. The Americans’ innovative powers were phenomenal. They invented the production line, created Hollywood and jazz, and landed men on the moon. Their armies helped end two world wars and their statesmen aspired to become global policemen.

Informed by years of close observation, bestselling author Simon Jenkins depicts a country often in turmoil, faced with racial division and radical countercultures. Yet while the recent election of Donald Trump has shown a collapse of confidence by many Americans in their ruling establishment, one that may spark a constitutional crisis, the United States remains to many a land of freedom and a citadel of democracy with a story to inspire.

This is a gripping and essential read for anyone who seeks to understand the country that continues to shape our world.

Simon Jenkins is author of the bestselling A Short History of England, A Short History of Europe, Britain's 100 Best Railway Stations, England's Thousand Best Churches and England's Thousand Best Houses. He is a former Editor of the Evening Standard and The Times, and columnist for the Guardian.