By far the most ambitious undertaking in John Dos Passos' career is the trilogy which bears the comprehensive title, U.S.A. These three novels, complete and unabridged, are panels of an integrated pattern of American life. They are as representative of our country at this living moment as the front page of today's newspaper and the latest newsreel. They are the drama of everyday American existence in a running chronicle that penetrates to the core of our national spirit. 

Dos Passos is without dispute one of the dominant figures in the literary world. His novels are a commentary on the frenzy of our time; out of its chaos he creates an artistic order and meaning for contemporary readers and for social historians of the future.  To present works of the stature of U.S.A. in a single volume of over 1,400 pages is the unique function of the Modern Library Giants. The publication of the forty-fourth title in this series again confirms the statement made by the conservative New York Times that this is "the greatest book bargain in all the world today."