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 -- 1987 -- Jeff Connaughton -- Dean Price -- Mr. Sam : Sam Walton -- 1994 -- Jeff Connaughton -- Tammy Thomas -- Just Business : Jay-Z -- Silicon Valley -- 1999 -- Biography : Alice Waters -- Dean Price -- Tammy Thomas -- 2003 -- Institution Man (1) : Colin Powell -- Jeff Connaughton -- Part II -- Dean Price -- Biography : Andrew Breitbart -- Tampa -- 2008 -- Silicon Valley -- Institution Man (2) : Robert Rubin -- Jeff Connaughton -- Tammy Thomas -- Dean Price -- Tampa -- Part III -- Jeff Connaughton -- 2010 -- Biography : Elizabeth Warren -- Tampa -- Dean Price -- Tammy Thomas -- Tampa -- Wall Street -- 2012 -- Silicon Valley -- Jeff Connaughton -- Tampa -- Tammy Thomas -- Dean Price.