Cast of characters -- Prologue -- "The mole" -- The dynamo -- The Pacific dream -- The Lone Star Republic -- To manufacture a war -- The army and the border -- The negotiations that never were -- The war begins -- "A state of war exists" -- The explorer and the marine -- Testing the enemy -- A question of "peculiar delicacy" -- Zachary Taylor's army -- Monterrey -- The war in the West -- America's Xenophon -- Planning a second front -- Dissent, patriotism, and the press -- Buena Vista -- The war in Congress -- Scott's epic march begins -- Planning the end game -- Closing in on the prize -- The halls of Montezuma -- Frustration -- Peace at last -- Afterword -- Epilogue.