Throughout its history, America has seen incremental improvements in the domestic and social lives of its citizens. Just for instance, Will K. Kellogg--who operated a Battle Creek, Michigan, sanitarium with his brother--developed a new crunchy breakfast cereal to serve in the sanitarium, and sold it to the nation by mail order. The business grew, revolutionizing American eating habits by replacing the traditional heavy, hot breakfast with cold cereals.

This reference book is divided into these sections: Agriculture, Art and music, Business and finance, Clothing, Communications, Education, Energy, Entertainment, Food and drink, Health, Labor, Law, Manufacturing, Public service, Religion, Science, Shelter and domestic furnishing, Social welfare, Sports, and Transportation.

Within each section the reader will find subsections detailing innovations and advances in that field--for example, Business and finance is made up of Accounting, Banking, Business machines, Exchanges, Hotels, Insurance, Lotteries, Merchandising, Money, Taxes, and Time keeping. This work describes the beginnings of many aspects of daily life in America, covering most innovations through approximately the 1930s. Dedicated to detailing the introduction of various advances or innovations, the book does not attempt to carry them through today.