The American Reader: Words that Moved a Nation

Front Cover
Harper Collins, Dec 7, 2010 - History - 656 pages

The American Reader is a stirring and memorable anthology that captures the many facets of American culture and history in prose and verse.  The 200 poems, speeches, songs, essays, letters, and documents were chosen both for their readability and for their significance.  These are the words that have inspired, enraged, delighted, chastened, and comforted Americans in days gone by.  Gathered here are the writings that illuminate -- with wit, eloquence, and sometimes sharp words -- significant aspects of national conciousness. They reflect the part that all Americans -- black and white, native born and immigrant, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American, poor and wealthy -- have played in creating the nation's character.

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Contents

The Mayflower Compact
3
List of Virtues
12
A Demand to Limit Search and Seizure
19
The Liberty Song
28
The Declaration of Independence
37
Common Sense
45
Liberty Tree
54
The Federalist No 1
63
Reply to Booker T Washington
329
Against Imperialism
337
THE PROGRESSIVE
345
Women and Economics
354
Should Higher Education for Women
360
Prejudice Against Women
369
Advice to a Black Schoolgirl
378
The Preacher and the Slave
385

Farewell Address
71
Hail Columbia
77
The StarSpangled Banner
83
The Meaning of Patriotism in America
90
Woodman Spare That Tree
96
REFORM AND EXPANSION
103
On Top of Old Smoky
111
A Psalm of Life
118
Civil Disobedience
125
Walden
134
The Barefoot Boy
140
The Case for Public Schools
148
Address to the Ohio
159
A Disappointed Woman
169
Walkers Appeal
175
Stanzas for the Times
181
Bearing Witness Against Slavery
188
The Present Crisis
198
The House Divided Speech
208
The LincolnDouglas Debates
216
Last Statement to the Court
224
Go Down Moses
238
Dixie
243
The Bonnie Blue Flag
250
The John Brown Song
256
Second Inaugural Address
263
AFTER THE CIVIL
273
The Ballad of John Henry
285
Speech at the National
295
The New Colossus
301
When de Con Pones Hot
308
The Pledge of Allegiance
315
America the Beautiful
321
Protest to President Wilson
394
Anne Rutledge
401
Solidarity Forever
408
The LeadenEyed
414
Against Entry into the War
422
The Marines Hymn
429
The Right to Ones Body
435
A Korean Discovers New York
441
O Black and Unknown Bards
447
THE DEPRESSION AND WORLD WAR II
457
Second Inaugural
464
Which Side Are You On?
471
This Is the Army Mr Jones
477
High Flight
485
War Message to
492
The Spirit of Liberty
498
AFTER WORLD WAR II
505
A Plea for Civil Rights
513
Declaration of Conscience
522
The Silent Generation
529
Farewell Address
535
Inaugural Address
549
Address to the Broadcasting Industry
555
Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream
564
Speech at the Berlin Wall
576
We Shall Overcome
583
The Feminine Mystique
589
On the Death of
597
The Wilderness Idea
603
The American Idea
610
Author Index
619
Copyright Acknowledgments
625
Copyright

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About the author (2010)

Diane Ravitch, a historian of education, is Research Professor at New York University, holds Brown Chair in Education Studies at the Brookings Institution, and is a Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. A former Guggenheim Fellow and recipient of many awards, she is also the author of the recent book Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms.

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