Table of Contents
Introduction | ROBERT VARE ||| FIRSTS
The Election in November | JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL | OCTOBER 1860 |
The Stereoscope and the Stereograph | OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES | JUNE 1859 |
Darwin and His Critics | ASA GRAY | OCTOBER 1860 |
Battle Hymn of the Republic | POEM BY JULIA WARD HOWE | FEBRUARY 1862 |
The Story of a Year | FICTION BY HENRY JAMES | MARCH 1865 |
MARK TWAIN AND THE ATLANTIC
The Innocents Abroad | BOOK REVIEW BY WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS | DECEMBER 1869 |
A True Story, Repeated Word for Word as I Heard It | MARK TWAIN | NOVEMBER 1874 |
A Telephonic Conversation | MARK TWAIN | JUNE 1880 |
The American Forests | JOHN MUIR | AUGUST 1897 |
Can a Catholic Be President? | ALFRED E. SMITH | MAY 1927 |
Fifty Grand | FICTION BY ERNEST HEMINGWAY | JULY 1927 |
Cloud, Castle, Lake | FICTION BY VLADIMIR NABOKOV | JUNE 1941 |
As We May Think | VANNEVAR BUSH | JULY 1945 |
The Captivity of Marriage | NORA JOHNSON | JUNE 1961 |
The Education of David Stockman | WILLIAM GREIDER | DECEMBER 1981 |
Broken Windows | JAMES Q. WILSON AND GEORGE L. KELLING | MARCH 1982 |
The Roots of Muslim Rage | BERNARD LEWIS | SEPTEMBER 1990 |
Who Was Deep Throat? | JAMES MANN | MAY 1992 |
The Coming Anarchy | ROBERT D. KAPLAN | FEBRUARY 1994 |
The Medical Ordeals of JFK | ROBERT DALLEK | DECEMBER 2002 |
The Fifty-first State | JAMES FALLOWS | NOVEMBER 2002 |
|| BLACK AND WHITE
Reconstruction | FREDERICK DOUGLASS | DECEMBER 1866 |
The Awakening of the Negro | BOOKER T. WASHINGTON | SEPTEMBER 1896 |
Strivings of the Negro People | W.E.B. DU BOIS | AUGUST 1897 |
Letter from Birmingham Jail | MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. | AUGUST 1963 |
Say Good-bye to Big Daddy | POEM BY RANDALL JARRELL | SEPTEMBER 1967 |
The Barber | FICTION BY FLANNERY O’CONNOR | OCTOBER 1970 |
The Origins of the Underclass | NICHOLAS LEMANN | JUNE 1986 |
|| GODS AND MONSTERS
Thoreau | RALPH WALDO EMERSON | AUGUST 1862 |
ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND THE ATLANTIC
The Place of Abraham Lincoln in History | GEORGE BANCROFT | JUNE 1865 |
Ode to Lincoln | POEM BY JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL | SEPTEMBER 1865 |
The Natural (Franklin Delano Roosevelt) | ISAIAH BERLIN | JULY 1955 |
Stalin’s Chuckle | IAN FRAZIER | OCTOBER 1995 |
The Path to Power (Lyndon Johnson) | ROBERT A. CARO | OCTOBER 1981 |
Tales of the Tyrant (Saddam Hussein) | MARK BOWDEN | MAY 2002 |
American Everyman (Warren Buffett) | WALTER KIRN | NOVEMBER 2004 |
|| BEHIND THE SCENES
Chiefly About War Matters | NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE | JULY 1862 |
Death of a Pig | E. B. WHITE | JANUARY 1948 |
Flying Upside Down | TRACY KIDDER | JULY 1981 |
The Crash of EgyptAir 990 | WILLIAM LANGEWIESCHE | NOVEMBER 2001 |
|| STATES OF WAR
Paul Revere’s Ride | POEM BY HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW | JANUARY 1861 |
The Psychological Roots of War | WILLIAM JAMES | DECEMBER 1904 |
Atomic War or Peace | ALBERT EINSTEIN | NOVEMBER 1947 |
“The Good War” | STUDS TERKEL | JULY 1984 |
What Is It About? | THOMAS POWERS | JANUARY 1984 |
|| CONTROVERSIES
For the Union Dead | POEM BY ROBERT LOWELL | NOVEMBER 1960 |
Mr. Sammler’s Planet | FICTION BY SAUL BELLOW | NOVEMBER 1969 |
Among the Believers | V. S. NAIPAUL | JULY 1981 |
Dan Quayle Was Right | BARBARA DAFOE WHITEHEAD | APRIL 1993 |
|| CAPITALISM AND ITS DISCONTENTS
Story of a Great Monopoly | HENRY DEMAREST LLOYD | MARCH 1881 |
Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond? | EDWARD JAY EPSTEIN | FEBRUARY 1982 |
On the Liquidation of the Mustang Ranch by the I.R.S. | POEM BY X. J. KENNEDY | DECEMBER 1991 |
Why McDonald’s Fries Taste So Good | ERIC SCHLOSSER | JANUARY 2001 |
|| THE NATURAL WORLD
Walking | HENRY DAVID THOREAU | JUNE 1862 |
“Birches,” “The Road Not Taken,” and “The Sound of Trees” | POEMS BY ROBERT FROST | AUGUST 1915 |
Teaching a Stone to Talk | ANNIE DILLARD | FEBRUARY 1981 |
The Wellfleet Whale | POEM BY STANLEY KUNITZ | NOVEMBER 1981 |
|| CROWD PLEASERS
Three Days to See | HELEN KELLER | JANUARY 1933 |
The Blow That Hurts | GENE TUNNEY | JUNE 1939 |
Blue Highways | WILLIAM LEAST HEAT-MOON | SEPTEMBER 1982 |
Lake Wobegon Days | FICTION BY GARRISON KEILLOR | AUGUST 1985 |
The Last Resort | CULLEN MURPHY | APRIL 1992 |
Lamentations of the Father | IAN FRAZIER | FEBRUARY 1997 |
|| THE AMERICAN IDEA
The Words That Remade America | GARRY WILLS | JUNE 1992 |
American Civilization | RALPH WALDO EMERSON | APRIL 1862 |
Bardic Symbols | POEM BY WALT WHITMAN | APRIL 1860 |
The Duties of Privilege | THEODORE ROOSEVELT | AUGUST 1894 |
The Ideals of America | WOODROW WILSON | DECEMBER 1902 |
Contributions of the West to American Democracy | FREDERICK JACKSON TURNER | JANUARY 1903 |
Trans-national America | RANDOLPH S. BOURNE | JULY 1916 |
Perils of American Power | REINHOLD NIEBUHR | JANUARY 1932 |
The New Isolationism | ARTHUR M. SCHLESINGER, JR. | MAY 1952 |
The Illusion of Security | GEORGE F. KENNAN | AUGUST 1954 |
Must We Hate? | ARCHIBALD MACLEISH | FEBRUARY 1963 |
Poetry and Power | JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY | FEBRUARY 1964 |
America’s Crisis Addiction | GEORGE MCGOVERN | JANUARY 1967 |
Bystanders to Genocide | SAMANTHA POWER | SEPTEMBER 2001 |
American Ground | WILLIAM LANGEWIESCHE | JULY/AUGUST 2002 |
