Through an examination of the lives of several Americans and leading public figures over the past three decades, Packer portrays a superpower in danger of coming apart at the seams, its elites no longer elite, its institutions no longer working, its ordinary people left to improvise their own schemes for success and salvation.

Part I. 1978 -- Dean Price -- Total War : Newt Gingrich -- Jeff Connaughton -- 1984 -- Tammy Thomas -- Her Own : Oprah Winfrey -- Jeff Connaughton -- 1987 -- Craftsman : Raymond Carver -- Dean Price -- Tammy Thomas -- Mr. Sam : Sam Walton --1994 -- Jeff Connaughton -- Silicon Valley -- 1999 -- Dean Price -- Tammy Thomas -- 2003 -- Institution Man (1) : Colin Powell -- Jeff Connaughton -- Part II. Dean Price -- Radish queen : Alice Waters -- Tampa -- Silicon Valley -- 2008 -- Institution Man (2) : Robert Rubin -- Jeff Connaughton -- Tammy Thomas -- Dean Price -- Just business : Jay-Z -- Tampa -- Part III. Jeff Connaughton -- 2010 -- Citizen journalist : Andrew Breitbart -- Tampa -- Dean Price -- Tammy Thomas -- Tampa -- Prairie populist : Elizabeth Warren -- Wall Street -- 2012 -- Silicon Valley -- Jeff Connaughton -- Tampa -- Tammy Thomas -- Dean Price.