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| List of Illustrations | |
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| Acknowledgments | |
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| Introduction | |
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| The Flag | |
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| The Star-Spangled Banner, Francis Scott Key and John Stafford Smith, 1814 | |
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| The Pledge of Allegiance, 1892 | |
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| The Battle Cry of Freedom, George Frederick Root, c. 1861 | |
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| The Flag Goes By, Henry Holcomb Bennett, c. 1900 | |
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| You're a Grand Old Flag, George M. Cohan, 1906 | |
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| West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943) | |
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| Flags, Gwendolyn Brooks, 1944 | |
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| The Mike Christian Story, John McCain, 1971 | |
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| Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989) | |
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| U.S. Blues, Grateful Dead, 1973 | |
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| God Bless the U.S.A., Lee Greenwood, 1984 | |
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| Visions of America | |
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| John Winthrop, A Model of Christian Charity, 1630 | |
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| George Washington, Farewell Address, September 19, 1796 | |
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| Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801 | |
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| Daniel Webster, Dedication of the Bunker Hill Monument, June 17, 1825 | |
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| The Ship of State, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1849 | |
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| Theodore Roosevelt, The Strenuous Life, April 10, 1899 | |
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| Let America Be America Again, Langston Hughes, July 1936 | |
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| Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Second Inaugural Address, January 20, 1937 | |
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| John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961 | |
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| The Times They Are A-Changin', Bob Dylan, c. 1963 | |
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| First Words Spoken by a Man on the Moon, July 20, 1969 | |
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| Ronald Reagan, Farewell Address, January 11, 1989 | |
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| Portraits of Americans | |
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| Yankee Doodle, 1755 | |
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| Letters from an American Farmer, J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, 1782 | |
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| Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville, 1835 | |
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| Democracy, Henry Adams, 1880 | |
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| The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde, 1891 | |
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| Dangers of the Dress Suit in Politics, George Washington Plunkitt, 1905 | |
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| Take Me Out to the Ball Game, Albert Von Tilzer and Jack Norworth, 1908 | |
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| On Being an American, H. L. Mencken, 1922 | |
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| As Regards Patriotism, Mark Twain, c. 1900 | |
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| I Like Americans, Edna St. Vincent Millay, 1924 | |
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| The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925 | |
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| American Names, Stephen Vincent Benet, 1927 | |
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| The 42nd Parallel, John Dos Passos, 1930 | |
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| You're the Top, Cole Porter, 1934 | |
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| The Story of a Novel, Thomas Wolfe, 1936 | |
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| Hollywood, Truman Capote, 1950 | |
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| The Last Gentleman, Walker Percy, 1966 | |
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| How to Tame a Wild Tongue, Gloria Anzaldua, 1987 | |
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| A Country and a Conundrum, Anna Quindlen, 2002 | |
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| Rule of Law | |
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| The Constitution of the United States, 1787 | |
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| Benjamin Franklin, The Constitutional Convention, Speech at the Conclusion of Its Deliberations, September 17, 1787 | |
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| Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1803) | |
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| Civil Disobedience, Henry David Thoreau, 1849 | |
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| Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861 | |
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| The United States of America v. Susan B. Anthony, 1873 | |
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| To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee, 1960 | |
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| Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham City Jail, April 16, 1963 | |
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| Lyndon B. Johnson, Special Message to the Congress: The American Promise, March 15, 1965 | |
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| Duncan v. Louisiana, 391 U.S. 145 (1968) | |
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| Barbara Jordan, Opening Statement to the House Judiciary Committee, Proceedings on Impeachment of Richard Nixon, July 25, 1974 | |
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| Gerald R. Ford, Remarks on Taking the Oath of Office, August 9, 1974 | |
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| Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98 (2000) | |
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| Freedom | |
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| The Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, 1776 | |
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| But, Mister Adams (from the Broadway musical 1776), Sherman Edwards, 1964 | |
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| America, Samuel Francis Smith, 1832 | |
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| Frederick Douglass, If I Had a Country, I Should Be a Patriot, September 24, 1847 | |
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| Annie Davis, Letter to President Lincoln, August 25, 1864 | |
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| Sympathy, Paul Laurence Dunbar, 1893 | |
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| Freedom, E. B. White, July 1940 | |
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| As freedom is a breakfastfood, E. E. Cummings, 1940 | |
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| Franklin Delano Roosevelt, State of the Union Address, January 6, 1941 | |
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| Judge Learned Hand, Address at "I Am an American" Day, Central Park, New York, May 21, 1944 | |
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| I've Got the Light of Freedom, Pete Seeger | |
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| Ronald Reagan, Address to Students, Moscow State University, May 31, 1988 | |
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| Freedom of Speech and of the Press | |
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| Andrew Hamilton, Statement at Trial of John Peter Zenger, 1735 | |
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| Abrams v. U.S., 250 U.S. 616 (1919) | |
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| Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927) | |
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| Margaret Chase Smith, Remarks to the Senate in Support of a Declaration of Conscience, June 1, 1950 | |
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| New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964) | |
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| Freedom of Religion | |
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| Amazing Grace, John Newton, 1779, 1829 (last stanza) | |
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| Chief Red Jacket, Speech Against Missionaries' Efforts to Baptize Members of the Seneca Tribe, 1805 | |
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| John F. Kennedy, Speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, September 12, 1960 | |
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| Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962) | |
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| Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, 122 S. Ct. 2460 (2002) | |
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| The Right to Be Let Alone | |
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| James Otis, Statement Against the Writs of Assistance, Boston, 1761 | |
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| Olmstead v. U.S., 277 U.S. 438 (1928) | |
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| Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992) | |
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| Equality | |
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| Abigail Adams, Letter to John Adams, March 31, 1776 | |
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| John Adams, Letter to Abigail Adams, April 14, 1776 | |
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| Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, Seneca Falls Convention, 1848 | |
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| Sojourner Truth, Ain't I a Woman?, May 1851 | |
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| James Weldon Johnson, Life Every Voice and Sing, 1900 | |
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| Jeannette Rankin, Speech in Congress on Women's Rights and Wartime Service, January 10, 1918 | |
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| Incident, Countee Cullen, 1925 | |
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| Merry-Go-Round, Langston Hughes, 1942 | |
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| Can a Woman Ever Be President of the United States?, Eleanor Roosevelt, 1935 | |
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| Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954) | |
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| The Chicago Defender Sends a Man to Little Rock, Fall 1957, Gwendolyn Brooks, 1960 | |
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| John F. Kennedy, Televised Address to the Nation, June 11, 1963 | |
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| Martin Luther King Jr., Address at the March on Washington, August 28, 1963 | |
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| Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique, 1963 | |
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| Fannie Lou Hamer, The Special Plight and the Role of the Black Woman, May 7, 1971 | |
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| Frontiero v. Richardson, 411 U.S. 677 (1973) | |
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| Edward M. Kennedy, Statement on Americans with Disabilities Act, May 9, 1989 | |
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| Hillary Rodham Clinton, Address to the Fourth UN World Conference on Women, Beijing, China, September 5, 1993 | |
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| William Jefferson Clinton, Remarks on Affirmative Action, July 19, 1995 | |
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| Baker v. State, 170 Vt. 194 (1999) | |
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| The Individual | |
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| Simple Gifts, Joseph Brackett, 1848 | |
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| Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance, 1841 | |
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| Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854 | |
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| Songs of the Sacred Mysteries, Sioux, 1869 | |
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| The Sorrow Songs (from The Souls of Black Folk), W.E.B. Du Bois, 1903 | |
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| The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost, 1916 | |
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| Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison, 1947 | |
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| William Faulkner, Address Upon Receiving the Nobel Prize, December 10, 1950 | |
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| Lillian Hellman, Letter to the House Committee on Un-American Activities, and Reply (from Scoundrel Time), 1952 | |
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| Robert F. Kennedy, Day of Affirmation, Cape Town University, June 6, 1966 | |
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| Martin Luther King Jr., The Drum Major Instinct, February 4, 1968 | |
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| In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens, Alice Walker, 1974 | |
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| War and Peace | |
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| Chief Logan, Speech After Defeat by the Virginia Militia, 1774 | |
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| Patrick Henry, Speech to the Second Virginia Convention, March 23, 1775 | |
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| Thomas Paine, Common Sense, February 14, 1776 | |
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| Paul Revere's Ride, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1863 | |
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| The Monroe Doctrine, 1823 | |
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| The Battle Hymn of the Republic, Julia Ward Howe, 1861 | |
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| Shiloh, a Requiem, Herman Melville, April 1862 | |
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| Abraham Lincoln, Final Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863 | |
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| Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863 | |
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| Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865 | |
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| Memoirs, Ulysses S. Grant, 1885-1886 | |
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| Chief Joseph, Surrender to the U.S. Army, 1877 | |
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| The Marines' Song, 1891 | |
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| Do Not Weep, Maiden, for War Is Kind, Stephen Crane, 1899 | |
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| The Caisson Song, Edmund L. Gruber, 1907 | |
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| Woodrow Wilson, War Message to Congress, April 2, 1917 | |
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| Over There, George M. Cohan, 1917 | |
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| The Unknown Soldier, Billy Rose | |
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| September 1, 1939, W.H. Auden, 1941 | |
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| Franklin Delano Roosevelt, War Message to Congress, December 8, 1941 | |
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| The Gift Outright, Robert Frost, 1942 | |
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| Martial Cadenza, Wallace Stevens, 1954 | |
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| Dwight D. Eisenhower, The Great Crusade, June 6, 1944 | |
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| J. Robert Oppenheimer, On the Atomic Bomb, 1945 | |
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| Albert Einstein, The Fateful Decision, 1948 | |
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| Harry S. Truman, Address to the Nation on Korea, April 11, 1951 | |
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| Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address, January 17, 1961 | |
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| Blowin' in the Wind, Bob Dylan, 1962 | |
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| John F. Kennedy, Commencement Address at American University, June 10, 1963 | |
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| Vietnam Veterans Against the War, John Kerry, 1971 | |
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| Born in the U.S.A., Bruce Springsteen, 1984 | |
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| Tim O'Brien, On the Rainy River (from The Things They Carried), 1990 | |
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| Richard M. Nixon, Remarks Upon Returning from the People's Republic of China, February 28, 1972 | |
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| William Jefferson Clinton, Remarks at Michigan State University, May 5, 1995 | |
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| George W. Bush, Address on Terrorism Before a Joint Meeting of Congress, September 20, 2001 | |
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| Jimmy Carter, Address Upon Receiving the Nobel Prize, December 10, 2002 | |
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| Work, Opportunity, and Invention | |
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| The New Colossus, Emma Lazarus, 1883 | |
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| Huang Zunxian, Explusion of the Immigrants, c. 1884 | |
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| I Hear America Singing, Walt Whitman, 1891 | |
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| I've Been Working on the Railroad | |
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| Wilbur Wright, Letter to Octave Chanute, May 13, 1900 | |
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| Florence Kelley, Speech at the Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, July 22, 1905 | |
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| The Jungle, Upton Sinclair, 1906 | |
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| Ellis Island, Henry James, 1907 | |
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| Ernesto Galarza, Barrio Boy, 1971 | |
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| Henry Ford, My Life and Work, 1922 | |
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| Thomas Alva Edison, They Won't Think, 1921 | |
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| Happy Days Are Here Again, Milton Ager and Jack Yellen, 1929 | |
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| Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?, E. Y. Harburg and jay Gorney, 1932 | |
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| Franklin Delano Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933 | |
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| West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish, 300 U.S. 379 (1937) | |
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| The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck, 1939 | |
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| Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman, 1949 | |
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| Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev, The Kitchen Debate, Moscow, 1959 | |
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| Manny Steen, Ellis Island Interview, March 22, 1991 | |
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| Groucho Marx, King Leer, 1950 | |
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| Coal Miner's Daughter, Loretta Lynn, 1970 | |
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| Mario Puzo, Choosing a Dream: Italians in Hell's Kitchen, 1971 | |
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| Robert F. Kennedy, Recapturing America's Moral Vision, University of Kansas, March 18, 1968 | |
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| Cesar Chavez, Address to the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco, November 9, 1984 | |
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| My Hometown, Bruce Springsteen, 1984 | |
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| Andy Warhol, POPism, 1975 | |
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| Edward M. Kennedy, Speech to the Democratic Convention, August 12, 1980 | |
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| David Bright, Homeless Children Speak, 1986 | |
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| George Bush, Speech at the Republican Convention, August 18, 1988 | |
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| The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan, 1989 | |
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| Arnold Schwarzenegger, The Education of an American, September 21, 2001 | |
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| Bill Gates, Capitalizing on the "Cognitive Niche," 1999 | |
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| God Bless America, Irving Berlin, 1938 | |
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| The Thanksgivings, Iroquois, 1891 | |
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| Twelfth Song of the Thunder, Navajo, 1887 | |
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| Oh! Susanna, Stephen Foster, 1848 | |
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| Old Cotton Fields at Home, Huddie Ledbetter, 1936 | |
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| Light in August, William Faulkner, 1932 | |
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| Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, James Agee, 1941 | |
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| Florida, Elizabeth Bishop, 1946 | |
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| The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain, 1884 | |
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| Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Robert Frost, 1923 | |
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| Moby-Dick, Herman Melville, 1851 | |
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| The Sidewalks of New York, James W. Blake and Charles B. Lawlor, 1894 | |
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| New York, New York, Fred Ebb and John Kander, 1977 | |
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| Jazz, Toni Morrison, 1992 | |
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| Chicago, Carl Sandburg, 1916 | |
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| Frederick Jackson Turner, The Significance of the Frontier in American History, 1893 | |
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| The Ballad of Davy Crockett, George Bruns and Tom Blackburn, 1954 | |
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| O Pioneers!, Willa Cather, 1913 | |
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| Northern Utes, Response to the Breakup of Their Reservation, 1903 | |
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| Home on the Range, David Guion, 1930 | |
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| The Old Chisholm Trail, c. 1880 | |
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| The Mud Below, Annie Proulx, 1999 | |
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| Oklahoma, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, 1943 | |
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| I Left My Heart in San Francisco, George C. Cory Jr. and Douglass Cross, 1954 | |
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| Sunset, Jack Kerouac, 1960 | |
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| Surfin' U.S.A., Chuck Berry and Brian Wilson, 1963 | |
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| Los Angeles Notebook, Joan Didion, 1966 | |
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| Big Yellow Taxi, Joni Mitchell, 1970 | |
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| The Wilderness Letter, Wallace Stegner, 1960 | |
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| America, Paul Simon, 1968 | |
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| America, the Beautiful, Katharine Lee Bates, 1893 | |
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| This Land Is Your Land, Woody Guthrie, 1940 | |
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| Permissions and Photo Credits | |
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| Index | |