The Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History offers to students comprehensive coverage of American economic history from the Paleolithic Age to the present with an emphasis on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The topics selected for inclusion by our board of advisors have been chosen to support most textbooks on American history, and this work should be a useful tool for juniors and seniors in high school and first- and second-year college students who are beginning an investigation of the subject. The student will find articles on the Aztec, Maya, and Inca, because many texts begin with a chapter on the early history of our southern neighbors. The history of Native Americans has also been included, so articles can be found on Mound Builders, Plains Indians, Five Civilized Tribes, the Trail of Tears and many other topics. Successful women and minority leaders are also to be found. There is, of course, a wealth of material on the rise of the United States as an industrial power. Brilliant inventors, labor unionizers, robber barons, reformers, political leaders, and manufacturers of products as disparate as Colt revolvers and modern computer software can all be found on these pages.