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Its portrayal of morally decadent and heartless socialites in some ways out-Hemingway's Hemingway (see "The Sun Also Rises"). But the trilogy is remarkable for the way it synthesizes the major historical themes of the 1920s shortly after the decade ended. Dos Passos is sharply critical of capitalism, but recognizes the power of the economic system, which is now larger than (and feeds upon) individuals. His sympathies lie with the leftist critics, who repeatedly fail to propose a viable alternative to capitalism.

The book is a product of its time regarding race and LGBT issues, although it's worth noting that Dos Passos criticizes characters who end friendships because of racial or religious prejudice. Some of the "Camera Eye" passages, in which Dos Passos employs stream-of-consciousness prose, come across as weak imitations of James Joyce. The reader struggles to keep the many bankers, lawyers, and bureaucrats straight, but I suspect that is Dos Passos's intention, showing how people become faceless agents of capitalism. Despite these reservations, I think "U.S.A." is clearly a masterpiece of twentieth-century fiction, and on a historiographic level it provides genuine insight into the lives of working-class white Americans between 1895 and 1929.