'An American Tragedy' is the story of Clyde Griffiths, who spends his life in the desperate pursuit of success. On a deeper, more profound level, it is the masterful portrayal of the society whose values both shape Clyde's ambitions and seal his fate; it is an unsurpassed depiction of the harsh realities of American life and of the dark side of the American dream. Extraordinary in scope and power, vivid in its sense of wholesale human waste, unceasing in its rich compassion, 'An American Tragedy' stands as Theodore Dreiser's supreme achievement.

Photographs, correspondence, newspaper clippings, and maps create a personal history of the Civil War, noting important battles and military leaders, the role of women and children, and the reality of war and slavery.

An American Tragedy is a tour de force, one of the most important novels in the American cannon. Ripped from the headlines, it follows Clyde Griffiths, a handsome, ambitious man whose religious upbringing has left him unprepared to pay the price required to realize the American Dream. It's an ambitious novel that unflinchingly confronts the lie of the American Dream and myth of a classless society with opportunities for all, and an extraordinary crime novel that will stay with you long after you've turned the last page. Nothing short of monumental.-- Kirkus The naturalist author Theodore Dreiser was obsessed with true crime, keeping track of articles and cases in the early 20th century. The product of this obsession was his 1925 novel, "An American Tragedy", based on a true crime story from New York's Adirondack Mountains region that Dreiser followed. This novel was one of Dreiser's most successful works and has often been hailed as his masterpiece.

A re-creation of the deliberations, actions, and deceptions that brought two decades of post-World War II confidence to an end, this book offers an insight into the Vietnam War at home and abroad - and into American foreign policy in the 1960s.