Acknowledgments

Sherman Alexie. “Superman and Me.” Originally published in The Most Wonderful Books by Milkweed Editions. Copyright © 1997 by Sherman Alexie. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Nancy Stauffer Associates. “My Heroes Have Never Been Cowboys.” From The First Indian on the Moon. Copyright © 1993 by Sherman Alexie. Reprinted by permission of Hanging Loose Press.

Paula Gunn Allen. Excerpt from Pocahontas: Medicine Woman, Spy, Entrepreneur Diplomat (pp. 17–19, 54, 59–61). Copyright © 2003 by Paula Gunn Allen. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Antonio Alvarez. Excerpt from “Out of My Hands.” From Underground Grads: UCLA Undocumented Immigrant Students Speak Out (pp. 52–56). Copyright © 2008 UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education. Reprinted with permission.

Julia Alvarez. “Snow.” From How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents. Copyright © 1991 by Julia Alvarez. Published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. Reprinted by permission of Susan Bergholz Literary Services, New York, NY and Lamy, NM. All rights reserved.

Benjamin Anastas. “The Foul Reign of ‘Self-Reliance.’” From The New York Times, December 4, 2011. Copyright © 2011 by The New York Times. All rights reserved. Used by permission and protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States. The printing, copying, redistribution, or retransmission of this Content without express written permission is prohibited. www.nytimes.com

Anne Applebaum. “If the Japanese Can’t Build a Safe Reactor, Who Can?” From The Washington Post, washingtonpost.com/opinions, March 14, 2011. Copyright © 2011 by The Washington Post Writers’ Group. Reprinted by permission of The Washington Post.

Margaret Atwood. “Hello Martians. Let Moby-Dick Explain.” From The New York Times, April 28, 2012. Copyright © 2012 The New York Times. All rights reserved. Used by permission and protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States. The printing, copying, redistribution, or retransmission of this Content without express written permission is prohibited. www.nytimes.com

W. H. Auden. “The Unknown Citizen.” From W. H. Auden Collected Poems. Copyright © 1940 and renewed 1968 by W. H. Auden. Used by permission of Random House, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited. Interested parties must apply directly to Random House LLC for permission. Content without express written permission is prohibited.

Ira Berlin. Excerpt from “Who Freed the Slaves? Emancipation and Its Meaning.” From Union and Emancipation: Essays on Politics and Race in the Civil War Era, edited by David Blight and D. Simpson Brooks. Reprinted by permission of The Kent State University Press.

Michael S. Berliner. “The Christopher Columbus Controversy.” First published in the Los Angeles Times, December 30, 1991. Copyright © 1991 by The Ayn Rand Institute. Reprinted by permission of Ayn Rand Institute.

Michael R. Bloomberg. August 3, 2010 Speech of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of the City of New York is used with permission of the City of New York.

Eavan Boland. “Becoming Anne Bradstreet.” From Shakespeare’s Sisters: Women Writers Bridge Five Centuries, published by the Folger Shakespeare Library. Copyright © 2012 Eavan Boland. Reprinted by permission of the author.

Julian Bond and Sondra Kathryn Wilson. Excerpt from Introduction of Lift Every Voice and Sing: A Celebration of the Negro National Anthem: 100 Years, 100 Voices edited by Julian Bond and Sondra Kathryn Wilson. Copyright © 2000 by Julian Bond and Sondra Kathryn Wilson. Used by permission of Random House, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited. Interested parties must apply directly to Random House LLC for permission.

Charles Bowden. Excerpts from “Our Wall.” From National Geographic Magazine, May 2007. Copyright © 2013 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of National Geographic Society.

Ken Chowder. Excerpt from “The Father of American Terrorism.” From American Heritage Magazine, February/March 2000, Volume 51, Issue 1. Reprinted by permission of the author.

Eleanor Clift. “Inside Kennedy’s Inauguration, 50 Years On.” From Newsweek, January 20, 2011. Copyright © 2011 The Newsweek/Daily Beast Company LLC. All rights reserved. Used by permission and protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States. The printing, copying, redistribution, or retransmission of this Content without express written permission is prohibited.

Lucille Clifton. “homage to my hips.” Copyright © 1980 by Lucille Clifton. Now appears in The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965–2010 by Lucille Clifton, published by BOA Editions. Reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd.

Judith Ortiz Cofer. “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria.” From The Latin Deli: Prose and Poetry by Judith Ortiz Cofer. Copyright © 1993 by Judith Ortiz Cofer. Reprinted by permission of The University of Georgia Press.

William J. Connell. “What Columbus Day Really Means.” From The American Scholar, Volume 79, No. 4, Autumn 2010. Copyright © 2010 by William Connell. Reprinted by permission of The American Scholar.

Hart Crane. “Van Winkle.” From The Complete Poems of Hart Crane by Hart Crane, edited by Marc Simon. Copyright © 1933, 1958, 1966 by Liveright Publishing Corporation. Copyright © 1986 by Marc Simon. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation. This selection may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.

E. E. Cummings. “Buffalo Bill’s.” Copyright © 1923, 1951, copyright © 1991 by the Trustees for the E.E. Cummings Trust. Copyright © 1976 by George James Firmage. “in Just-.” Copyright © 1923, 1951, copyright © 1991 by the Trustees for the E.E. Cummings Trust. Copyright © 1976 by George James Firmage, from Complete Poems: 1904–1962 by E. E. Cummings, edited by George J. Firmage. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation. This selection may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Mario Cuomo. Excerpts from “Abraham Lincoln and Our ‘Unfinished Work.’” From Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association. Copyright © 1986 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Used with the permission of the University of Illinois Press.

Harlon L. Dalton. “Horatio Alger.” From Racial Healing by Harlon Dalton. Copyright © 1995 by Harlon L. Dalton. Used by permission of Doubleday, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited. Interested parties must apply directly to Random House LLC for permission.

Kenneth C. Davis. “America’s True History of Religious Tolerance.” Originally appeared in Smithsonian Magazine, October 2010. Copyright © by Kenneth C. Davis. Reprinted by permission of the author. Kenneth C. Davis is the New York Times Best Selling author of Don’t Know Much About About © History and America’s Hidden History. Visit dontknowmuch.com for more information about Davis and other titles in his Don’t Know Much About © series for adults and children.

Emily Dickinson. “Success is Counted Sweetest,” “The Soul selects her own Society,” “After great pain, a formal feeling comes,” “My life had stood—a loaded gun,” and “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died.” Reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of Amherst College from The Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson, Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Copyright © 1951, 1955, 1979, 1983 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Joan Didion. “On Self-Respect” and “Santa Ana Winds” from “Los Angeles Notebook.” From Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion. Copyright © 1966, 1968, renewed 1996 by Joan Didion. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.

Annie Dillard. “Living Like Weasels.” From Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters by Annie Dillard. Copyright © 1982 by Annie Dillard. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Amy Domini. “Why Investing in Fast Food May Be a Good Thing.” From Ode Magazine, March 2009. Reprinted by permission of Amy Domini.

Ross Douthat. “The Secrets of Princeton.” From The New York Times, April 7, 2013. Copyright © 2013 The New York Times. All rights reserved. Used by permission and protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States. The printing, copying, redistribution, or retransmission of this Content without express written permission is prohibited. www.nytimes.com

Rita Dove. “Rosa.” From On the Bus with Rosa Parks by Rita Dove. Copyright © 1999 by Rita Dove. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. This selection may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Lawrence Downes. “In Search of Flannery O’Connor.” From The New York Times, February 4, 2007. Copyright © 2007 The New York Times. All rights reserved. Used by permission and protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States. The printing, copying, redistribution, or retransmission of this Content without express written permission is prohibited. www.nytimes.com

Stephen Dunn. “The Sacred.” From Between Angels by Stephen Dunn. Copyright © 1989 by Stephen Dunn. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. This selection may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Gerald L. Early. Reprinted by permission of the publisher from A Level Playing Field: African American Athletes and The Republic of Sports by Gerald L. Early, pp. 47–49, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Copyright © 2011 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. “Jazz and the African American Literary Tradition.” Freedom’s Story, TeacherServe. Copyright © 2013 National Humanities Center. Reprinted by permission of National Humanities Center. http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/freedom/1917beyond/essays/jazz.htm

Roger Ebert. Review of Star Wars. From the Chicago Sun-Times, January 1, 1977.

Diana L. Eck. Excerpt from “Working It Out: The Workplace and Religious Practice” (pp. 316–321). From A New Religious America by Diana L. Eck. Copyright © 2001 by Diana L. Eck. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Gary Edgerton and Kathy Merlock Jackson. Excerpt from “Redesigning Pocahontas: Disney, the ‘White Man’s Indian,’ and the Marketing of Dreams.” From The Journal of Popular Film and Television. Reprinted by permission of Taylor & Francis Ltd. http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals.

Albert Einstein. Letter from Albert Einstein to Phyllis Wright, January 24, 1936. Used with permission of the Albert Einstein Archives, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Ralph Ellison. Excerpt from “The Invisible Man.” Copyright © 1947, 1948, 1952 by Ralph Ellison. Copyright renewed 1975, 1976, 1980 by Ralph Ellison. Excerpt from “On Bird, Bird-Watching and Jazz.” From Shadow and Act. Copyright © 1962 and renewed 1990 by Ralph Ellison. Used by permission of Random House, an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited. Interested parties must apply directly to Random House LLC for permission.

Louise Erdrich. “Captivity.” From Jacklight by Louise Erdrich. Copyright © 2003 by Louse Erdrich. Originally appeared in Jacklight, currently collected in Original Fire. Used by permission of The Wylie Agency LLC.

William Faulkner. “Speech to accept the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature,” Stockholm, December 10, 1950. From Essays, Speeches and Public Letters. Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1949. Reprinted by permission of The Nobel Foundation. “Barn Burning.” From Collected Stories of William Faulkner by William Faulkner. Copyright © 1950 by Random House. Copyright renewed 1977 by Jill Faulkner Summers. Used by permission of Random House, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited. Interested parties must apply directly to Random House LLC for permission.

F. Scott Fitzgerald. “General Resolves.” Reprinted with the permission of Scribner Publishing Group from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Copyright © 1925 by Charles Scribner’s Sons. Copyright renewed © 1953 by Frances Scott Fitzgerald Lanahan. All rights reserved.

Richard Frethorne. “Letter to Father and Mother.” From Remarkable Providences: Readings on Early American History, edited by John Demos. Copyright © University Press of New England, Lebanon, NH. Pages 46–49 reprinted with permission of University Press of New England.

Robert Frost. “Reluctance,” “Mending Wall,” and “Fire and Ice.” From The Poetry of Robert Frost, edited by Edward Connery Lathem. Copyright © 1923, 1930, 1934, 1939, 1969 by Henry Holt and Company, LLC. Copyright © 1951, 1958, 1962 by Robert Frost. Copyright © 1967 by Lesley Frost Ballantine. Used by permission of Henry Holt and Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

Henry Louis Gates. Excerpts from The Trials of Phillis Wheatley. Copyright 2003 by Henry Louis Gates. Reprinted by permission of BasicCivitas Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group, in the format Republish in a book via Copyright Clearance Center. “Ending the Slavery Blame Game” from The New York Times, April 23, 2010. Copyright © 2010 The New York Times. All rights reserved. Used by permission and protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States. The printing, copying, redistribution, or retransmission of this Content without express written permission is prohibited. www.nytimes.com

Lou Gehrig. “The Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth,” speech given on July 4, 1939. Lou Gehrig^TM is a trademark of the Rip van Winkle Foundation, licensed by CMG Worldwide, Inc. Reprinted by permission of CMG Worldwide. www.LouGehrig.com

Malcolm Gladwell. “Small Change—Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted.” Originally published in The New Yorker, October 4, 2010. Copyright © 2013 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission. Excerpt from Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. Copyright © 2008 by Malcolm Gladwell. Reprinted by permission of Little, Brown and Company. All rights reserved.

Mary Gordon. “More Than Just a Shrine.” From The New York Times, November 3, 1985. Copyright © 1985 by The New York Times. All rights reserved. Used by permission and protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States. The printing, copying, redistribution, or retransmission of this Content without express written permission is prohibited.

Steven Jay Gould. “Women’s Brains.” From The Panda’s Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History by Stephen Jay Gould. Copyright © 1980 by Steven Jay Gould. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. This selection may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Rayna Green. “A Modest Proposal: The Museum of the Plains White Person.” After-Feast Speech: Contemporary Indian Humor. Reprinted by permission of the author.

Daniel Harris. Excerpt from “Celebrity Bodies.” First appeared in Southwest Review, Vol. 93, No. 1, 2008. Copyright © 2008 Daniel Harris. Used with permission of the Baldi Literary Agency on behalf of the author.

Robert Hayden. “Those Winter Sundays” and “Frederick Douglas.” From Collected Poems of Robert Hayden by Robert Hayden, edited by Frederick Glaysher. Copyright © 1966 by Robert Hayden. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation. This selection may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Ernest Hemingway. “A Clean Well-Lighted Place.” Reprinted with the permission of Scribner Publishing Group from The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway by Ernest Hemingway. Copyright © 1933 by Charles Scribner’s Sons. Copyright renewed 1961 by Mary Hemingway. All rights reserved.

Laura Hillenbrand. Excerpt from Seabiscuit: An American Legend. Copyright © 2001 by Laura Hillenbrand. Used by permission of Random House, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited. Interested parties must apply directly to Random House LLC for permission.

Ho Chi Minh. “Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Vietnam (1945).” From Conflict in Indo-China and International Repercussions: A Documentary History, 1945–1955, (pp. 20–21), edited by Allan B. Cole. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Allan B. Cole.

Richard Hofstadter. Excerpt from “White Servitude.” From America at 1750 by Richard Hofstadter. Copyright © 1971 by Beatrice K. Hofstadter. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited. Interested parties must apply directly to Random House LLC for permission.

Hopi. “A Satisfying Meal.” From American Indian Trickster Tales by Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz. Copyright © 1998 by Richard Erdoes and the Estate of Alfonso Ortiz. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.

Tony Horwitz. “The 9/11 of 1859.” From The New York Times, December 2, 2009. Copyright © 2009 by The New York Times. All rights reserved. Used by permission and protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States. The printing, copying, redistribution, or retransmission of this Content without express written permission is prohibited. www.nytimes.com

Caroline M. Hoxby and Christopher Avery. Excerpt from “The Missing ‘One-Offs’: The Hidden Supply of High Achieving, Low Income Students.” From NBER Working Paper, No. 18586, December 2012. Copyright © 2012 by Caroline M. Hoxby and Christopher Avery. All rights reserved.

Langston Hughes. “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain.” First published in The Nation. Copyright © 1926 by Langston Hughes. Reprinted by permission of Harold Ober Associates Incorporated. “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” “Jazzonia,” “Theme for English B,” “Mother to Son,” and “Harlem [2].” From The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes by Langston Hughes, edited by Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel, Associate Editor. Copyright © 1994 by The Estate of Langston Hughes. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC and Harold Ober Associates Incorporated. All rights reserved. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited. Interested parties must apply directly to Random House LLC for permission.

Ken Ilqunas. “The Van Dweller.” From The New York Times, April 14, 2013. Copyright © 2013 by The New York Times. All rights reserved. Used by permission and protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States. The printing, copying, redistribution, or retransmission of this Content without express written permission is prohibited. www.nytimes.com

Jeff Jacoby. “The Role of Religion in Government: Invoking Jesus at the Inauguration.” From The Boston Globe, February 1, 2001. Copyright © 2001 by The Boston Globe. All rights reserved. Used by permission and protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States. The printing, copying, redistribution, or retransmission of this Content without express written permission is prohibited.

Randall Jarrell. “The Death of the Ball-Turret Gunner.” From The Complete Poems by Randall Jarrell. Copyright © 1969, renewed 1997 by Mary von S. Jarrell. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.

Paulette Jiles. “Paper Matches.” From The Blackwater Book by Paulette Jiles. Copyright © 1988 by Paulette Jiles. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

June Jordan. “The Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America.” From Some of Us Did Not Die: New and Selected Essays of June Jordan by June Jordan. Copyright © 2002 by June Jordan. Reproduced with permission of Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group, in the format Republish in a book via Copyright Clearance Center.

Joy S. Kasson. Excerpts from “Performing National Identity.” From Buffalo Bill’s Wild West: Celebrity, Memory, and Popular History by Joy S. Kasson. Copyright © 2000 by Joy S. Kasson. Copyright © 2000 by Joy S. Kasson. Reprinted by permission of Hill & Wang, a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.

Martin Kilson. “To the Editor.” From The New York Times, September 3, 2001. Response to article by Brent Staples, “The Slave Reparations Movement Adopts the Rhetoric of Victimhood,” September 2, 2001. Copyright © 2001 Martin Kilson. Reprinted by permission of Martin Kilson.

Martin Luther King, Jr. “Letter From Birmingham Jail.” Copyright © 1963 by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., copyright renewed © 1991 by Coretta Scott King. Reprinted by arrangement with The Heirs to the Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., c/o Writers House as agent for the proprietor New York, NY.

David L. Kirp. “The Secret to Fixing Bad Schools.” From The New York Times, February 10, 2013. Copyright © 2013 The New York Times. All rights reserved. Used by permission and protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States. The printing, copying, redistribution, or retransmission of this Content without express written permission is prohibited. www.nytimes.com

Kenneth Koch. “Variations on a Theme by William Carlos Williams.” From The Collected Poems of Kenneth Koch by Kenneth Koch. Copyright © 2005 by The Kenneth Koch Literary Estate. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited. Interested parties must apply directly to Random House LLC for permission.

Paul Krugman. Excerpt from “Confronting Inequality.” From The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul. Copyright © 2007 by Paul Krugman. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. This selection may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Li-Young Lee. “The Hammock.” From Book of My Nights by Li-Young Lee. Copyright © 2001 by Li-Young Lee. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of BOA Editions, Ltd., www.boaeditions.org.

Sanford Levinson. “Our Imbecilic Constitution and Responses” from The New York Times, May 28, 2012. Copyright © 2012 The New York Times. All rights reserved. Used by permission and protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States. The printing, copying, redistribution, or retransmission of this Content without express written permission is prohibited.

Archibald MacLeish. “Voyage to the Moon.” From Collected Poems, 1917–1982 by Archibald MacLeish. Copyright © 1985 by the Estate of Archibald MacLeish. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Bernard Malamud. “The First Seven Years.” From The Magic Barrel Stories by Bernard Malamud. Copyright © 1950, 1958, renewed 1977, 1986 by Bernard Malamud. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, LLC.

Robert E. McGlone. Excerpts from “The ‘Madness’ of John Brown.” From Civil War Times, October 2009, Vol. 48 No. 5. Copyright © 2009 by Weider History Group. Reprinted by permission of Weider History Group.

National Public Radio. “Wilma Mankiller Reflects on Columbus Day.” Copyright © 2008 National Public Radio, Inc. NPR news report titled “Wilma Mankiller Reflects on Columbus Day” by NPR’s Michel Martin was originally broadcast on NPR’s Tell Me More on October 13, 2008, and is used with the permission of NPR. Any unauthorized duplication is strictly prohibited.

The New York Times. “Felons and the Right to Vote” from The New York Times, July 11, 2004. Copyright © 2011 The New York Times. All rights reserved. Used by permission and protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States. The printing, copying, redistribution, or retransmission of this Content without express written permission is prohibited. www.nytimes.com

Naomi Shihab Nye. “Arabic Coffee.” From 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East by Naomi Shihab Nye. Copyright © 2002 by Naomi Shihab Nye. Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Joyce Carol Oates. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” From Wheel of Love and Other Stories by Joyce Carol Oates. Copyright © 1970 by Ontario Review, Inc. Reprinted by permission of John Hawkins & Associates, Inc.

Tim O’Brien. “On the Rainy River.” From The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. Copyright © 1990 by Tim O’Brien. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Flannery O’Connor. “Good Country People.” From A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O’Connor. Copyright © 1953 by Flannery O’Connor, copyright © renewed 1981 by Regina O’Connor. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Charles Ogletree, Jr. “Litigating the Legacy of Slavery.” From The New York Times, March 21, 2002. Copyright © 2002 The New York Times. All rights reserved. Used by permission and protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States. The printing, copying, redistribution, or retransmission of this Content without express written permission is prohibited. www.nytimes.com

Frank O’Hara. “On Seeing Larry Rivers’ Washington Crossing the Delaware at the Museum of Modern Art.” From Meditations in an Emergency by Frank O’Hara. Copyright © 1957 by Frank O’Hara. Used by permission of Grove/Atlantic, Inc. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited. All rights reserved.

Sharon Olds. “Rite of Passage.” From The Dead and the Living by Sharon Olds. Copyright © 1987 Sharon Olds. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited. Interested parties must apply directly to Random House LLC for permission.

P. J. O’Rourke. “The End of the Affair.” From The Wall Street Journal, May 30, 2009. Copyright © 2009 by The Wall Street Journal by News Corporation; Dow Jones & Company. Reproduced with permission of Dow Jones Company in the format Republish in a book via Copyright Clearance Center.

Hans Ostrom. “Emily Dickinson and Elvis Presley in Heaven.” From Kiss Off: Poems to Set You Free and The Coast Starlight: Collected Poems 1976–2006 by Hans Ostrom. Copyright © 1989 and 2006 by Hans Ostrom. Reprinted by permission of the author.

Julie Otsuka. Excerpt from When the Emperor Was Divine. Copyright © 2002 by Julie Otsuka, Inc. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited. Interested parties must apply directly to Random House LLC for permission.

Pew Research Center. “Driving Has Become Less Enjoyable, and Cars Have Lost Some Luster, a Plague of Traffic.” From Americans and Their Cars: Is the Romance on the Skids? August 1, 2006. Pew Internet & American Life Project. Reprinted by permission of Pew Research Center. http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2006/08/01/americans-and-their-cars-is-the-romance-on-the-skids/

Earl E. Pollock. “Letter to the Editor.” From The New York Times, May 29, 2012 in response to article by Sanford Levinson, “Our Imbecilic Constitution.” Reprinted by permission of Earl E. Pollack.

William Powers. Excerpt from “The Walden Zone,” pp. 180–92 [2210 words] from Hamlet’s Blackberry by William Powers. Copyright © 2010 by William Powers. Reprinted by permisssion of HarperCollins Publishers.

Ronald Radosh. “Case Closed: The Rosenbergs Were Soviet Spies.” From Los Angeles Times, September 17, 2008. Ronald Radosh, co-author of The Rosenberg File, is Professor Emeritus of History at the City University of New York, an Adjunct Fellow at The Hudson Institute, and a columnist for PF Media. Reprinted by permission of the author.

David S. Reynolds. “Freedom’s Martyr.” From The New York Times, December 2, 2009. Copyright © 2009 by The New York Times. All rights reserved. Used by permission and protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States. The printing, copying, redistribution, or retransmission of this Content without express written permission is prohibited. www.nytimes.com

Adrienne Rich. “Diving Into the Wreck.” From The Fact of a Doorframe: Selected Poems 1950–2001 by Adrienne Rich. Copyright © 2002 by Adrienne Rich. Copyright © 1973 by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Daniel K. Richter. “Living with Europeans.” Reprinted by permission of the publisher from Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America by Daniel K. Richter, pp. 69–78, 268–270, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Copyright © 2001 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Theodore Roethke. “The Waking.” From Collected Poems by Theodore Roethke. Copyright © 1945 by Theodore Roethke. Used by permission of Doubleday, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited. Interested parties must apply directly to Random House LLC for permission.

Eleanor Roosevelt. “What Libraries Mean to the Nation.” Address at the District of Columbia Library Association dinner, April 1, 1936. D.C. Public Library, Washingtonia Division, District of Columbia Library Association Records.

Joe Sacco and Chris Hedges. Excerpt from “Days of Siege, Camden, NJ.” From Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt. Copyright © 2012 by Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco. Reprinted by permission of Perseus Books Group in the format Republish in a book via Copyright Clearance Center.

Michael J. Sandel. Excerpts from “Justice and the Common Good.” From Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? by Michael J. Sandel. Copyright © 2009 by Michael J. Sandel. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.

Fabiola Santiago. “In College, These American Citizens Are Not Created Equal.” From The Miami Herald, October 26, 2011. Copyright © 2011 by The McClatchy Company. All rights reserved. Used by permission and protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States. The printing, copying, redistribution, or retransmission of this Content without express written permission is prohibited. www.themiamiherald.com

Crispin Sartwell. “My Walden, My Walmart.” From The New York Times, May 27, 2012. Copyright © 2012 by The New York Times. All rights reserved. Used by permission and protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States. The printing, copying, redistribution, or retransmission of this Content without express written permission is prohibited. www.nytimes.com

Isabel V. Sawhill, Scott Winship, Kerry Searle Grannis. Excerpts from “Pathways to Middle Class: Balancing Personal and Public Responsibilities,” September 20, 2012. Social Genome Project Research/Number 47, Ref. No. 20131023. Reprinted by permission of The Brookings Institution.

Michael Scheibach. “Epilogue: 1955.” From Atomic Narratives and American Youth: Coming of Age with the Atom 1945–1955. Copyright © 2003 by Michael Scheibach. Reprinted by permission of McFarland & Company, Inc., Box 611, Jefferson, NC 28640. www.mcfarlandpub.com

Eric Schlosser. Excerpted from “The Most Dangerous Job.” From Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser. Copyright © 2001 by Eric Schlosser. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Michael Segell. Excerpt from The Devil’s Horn: The Story of the Saxophone from Noisy Novelty to King of Cool. Copyright © 2005 Michael Segell. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.

Michael Shaara. Excerpt from The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War by Michael Shaara. Copyright © 1974 by Michael Shaara; copyright renewed 2002 by Jeff M.Shaara and Lila E. Shaara. Used by permission of Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited. Interested parties must apply directly to Random House LLC for permission.

Shasta. “Coyote Gets Stuck.” From American Indian Trickster Tales by Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz. Copyright © 1998 by Richard Erdoes and the Estate of Alfonso Ortiz. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.

Garry S. Sklar. “Letter to the Editor.” From The New York Times, May 29, 2012 in response to article by Sanford Levinson, “Our Imbecilic Constitution.” Reprinted by permission of Garry S. Sklar.

Holly Sklar. “The Growing Gulf Between the Rich and the Rest of Us.” From Knight Ridder. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services, September 29, 2005. Copyright © 2005 by Holly Sklar. Reprinted by permission of the author.

Frederic N. Smalkin. “Letter to the Editor” from The New York Times, May 29, 2012 in response to article by Sanford Levinson, “Our Imbecilic Constitution.” Reprinted by permission of Frederic N. Smalkin.

Hedrick Smith. Excerpt from Who Stole the American Dream? Copyright © 2012 by Hedrick Smith. Used by permission of Random House, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited. Interested parties must apply directly to Random House LLC for permission.

Tracy K. Smith. “Letter to a Photojournalist Going In.” From Duende: Poems. Copyright © 2007 by Tracy K. Smith. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of Graywolf Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. www.graywolfpress.org

William Stafford. “At the Un-National Monument Along the Canadian Border.” From The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems. Copyright © 1975, 1998 by William Stafford and the Estate of William Stafford. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions company, Inc. on behalf of Graywolf Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota, www.graywolfpress.org.

Brent Staples. “Just Walk On By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space.” Copyright © 1986 by Brent Staples. Reprinted by permission of the author. “The Slave Reparations Movement Adopts the Rhetoric of Victimhood.” From The New York Times, September 2, 2001. Copyright © 2001 by The New York Times. All rights reserved. Used by permission and protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States. The printing, copying, redistribution, or retransmission of this Content without express written permission is prohibited. www.nytimes.com

John Steinbeck. “The Chrysanthemums.” From The Long Valley by John Steinbeck. Copyright © 1937, renewed © 1965 by John Steinbeck. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.

Wallace Stevens. “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.” From The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens by Wallace Stevens. Copyright © 1954 by Wallace Stevens and renewed 1982 by Holly Stevens. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited. Interested parties must apply directly to Random House LLC for permission.

Dana Thomas. “Terror’s Purse Strings” from The New York Times, August 30, 2007. Copyright © 2007 by The New York Times. All rights reserved. Used by permission and protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States. The printing, copying, redistribution, or retransmission of this Content without express written permission is prohibited.

Times of London. “Man Takes First Steps on the Moon.” From The London Times, July 21, 1969. Custom. Reprinted by permission of News Syndication.

Natasha Trethewey. “Again, The Fields.” From Native Guard: Poems by Natasha Trethewey. Copyright © 2006 by Natasha Trethewey. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Brian Turner. “At Lowe’s Improvement Center.” From Phantom Noise by Brian Turner. Copyright © 2010 by Brian Turner. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of Alice James Books. www.alicejamesbooks.org

John Updike. Excerpt from Rabbit, Run. Copyright © 1960, copyright renewed 1988 by John Updike. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited. Interested parties must apply directly to Random House LLC for permission.

Alice Walker. Excerpt from “Beyond the Peacock.” In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose by Alice Walker. Copyright © 1983 by Alice Walker. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Robert Penn Warren. Excerpt from All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren. Copyright © 1946 and renewed 1974 by Robert Penn Warren. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Alice Waters. “Slow Food Nation.” From The Nation. Reprinted with permission from the August 24, 2006 issue of The Nation. For subscription information, call 1-800-333-8536. Portions of each week’s Nation magazine can be accessed at http://www.thenation.com.

Spencer R. Weart. “The Rise of Nuclear Fear.” Reprinted by permission of the publisher from The Rise of Nuclear Fear by Spencer R. Weart, pp. 265–267, 269–270, 341, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Copyright © 1988 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Copyright © 2012 by Spencer R. Weart.

Edith Wharton. “Roman Fever.” Reprinted with the permission of Scribner Publishing Group from Roman Fever and Other Stories by Edith Wharton. Copyright © 1934 by Liberty Magazine. Copyright renewed © 1962 by William R. Tyler. All rights reserved.

Lee Strout (E. B.) White. “Farewell, My Lovely.” Originally published in The New Yorker, May 16, 1936. Copyright © 2013 by Condé Nast. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission. Excerpt from “Walden.” From One Man’s Meat. Text copyright © 1941 by E. B. White. Copyright renewed. Reprinted by permission of Tilbury House, Publishers, Thomaston, Maine.

George F. Will. Excerpts from “King Coal: Reigning in China.” From The Washington Post, December 30, 2010; A 15. Copyright © 2010 by The Washington Post. Reprinted by permission of The Washington Post.

Florence Carlos Williams. “Reply.” From The Collected Poems: Volume 1, 1909–1939. Copyright © 1938 by New Directions Publishing Corporation. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

William Carlos Williams. “The Great Figure” and “This Is Just To Say.” from The Collected Poems: Volume I, 1909–1939. Copyright © 1938 by New Directions Publishing Corp. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

Edward O. Wilson. Excerpt from Prologue “A Letter to Thoreau.” From The Future of Life by Edward O. Wilson. Copyright © 2002 by E. O. Wilson. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited. Interested parties must apply directly to Random House LLC for permission.

Tom Wolfe. Excerpt from “The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby.” From The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby by Tom Wolfe. Copyright © 1965, renewed 1993 by Tom Wolfe. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC; reprinted by permission of the author. Excerpt from pp. 28–31 from The New Journalism, edited by Tom Wolfe and E. W. Johnson. Copyright © 1973 by Tom Wolfe and E. W. Johnson. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Richard Wright. “The Man Who Was Almost a Man.” From Eight Men by Richard Wright (pp. 3–18). Copyright © 1940, 1961 by Richard Wright; renewed © 1989 by Ellen Wright. Introduction copyright © 1996 by Paul Gilroy. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers and John Hawkins & Associates, Inc.

Eric K. Yamamoto. Excerpts from “Racial Reparations: Japanese American Redress and African American Claims.” From Boston College Third World Law Journal, Volume 19, Issue 1, Article 13. Reprinted by permission of Boston College Law School.

Kevin Young. “Homage to Phillis Wheatley” from Giant Steps: The New Generation of African American Writers.