The American Reader

Diane Ravitch's anthology gathers roughly two hundred pieces of American writing, including poems, speeches, songs, essays, letters, and official documents. Each was selected both because it is pleasurable to read and because it matters historically. Taken together, the texts record what has stirred Americans in earlier eras, whether that was outrage, amusement, rebuke, or solace.

The selections show many kinds of wit and eloquence, sometimes blunt and sometimes cutting, and they shed light on major currents in the national mind. Their authors and subjects come from every part of the country's population: Black and white Americans, native-born citizens and immigrants, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American people, and both the rich and the poor. Read in sequence, they show how each of these groups has helped shape the nation's character.