Mark Twain and the Colonel tells the story of America between 1890 and 1910 through the fully engaged involvement of the era's two most vital participants: Mark Twain and Theodore Roosevelt. At this pivotal moment in our history, the previously frontier-driven expansion of America was being replaced by an America that had begun to legitimately think of itself as a world power, and a dominant presence and leader on the international stage. No longer merely a successful experiment in democracy and republicanism, America saw tensions arise between those focused on which areas of American life necessitated radical progress, and which required devout preservation. Tensions like these manifested nowhere more tellingly than between our greatest humorist and our youngest President, whose warring visions of what America could and ought to be were radically different, but nevertheless laid the bedrock for modern America - its arguments, achievements, and aspirations - as we came to see it through the twentieth century, and to the present day.

Part I: War Chapter 1: Return to America Chapter 2: Celebrity Chapter 3: Vice-Presidential Candidate Chapter 4: Warfare Chapter 5: Imperialist America Chapter 6: Anti-Imperialist Chapter 7: Election Results Chapter 8: The Strenuous Life Part II: West Chapter 9: Rural Upbringing Chapter 10: Urban Upbringing Chapter 11: Clemens Goes West Chapter 12: Grand Tours Chapter 13: Western Writings Chapter 14: Continental America Chapter 15: The Philippines Chapter 16: Pan-American Exposition Part III: Race Chapter 17: Yale Bicentennial Chapter 18: Racial America Chapter 19: Back to Hannibal Chapter 20: Roosevelt and Race Chapter 21: Livy Chapter 22: Huckleberry Finn Chapter 23: Roosevelt and the Philippines Chapter 24: Placating the South Part IV: Oil Chapter 25: The Kanawha Chapter 26: Corporate America Chapter 27: Roosevelt as Reformer Chapter 28: The Gilded Age Chapter 29: Bankruptcy Chapter 30: In the White House Chapter 31: Trustbusting Chapter 32: Our Life Is Wrecked Part V: Children Chapter 33: A Seventieth Birthday Chapter 34: Susy Chapter 35: America at Home Chapter 36: Bully Father Chapter 37: President in His Own Right Chapter 38: Global Visions Chapter 39: Bereft and Adrift Chapter 40: Young People Part VI: Peace Chapter 41: Carnegie Chapter 42: America at Peace Chapter 43: Late Pleasures Chapter 44: TR Steps Down Chapter 45: Jean Chapter 46: Funerals Chapter 47: Bull Moose Chapter 48: Afterward Chronology