Table Of Contents:
Preface ix
Introduction xiii
Chronology xxxi
The Founding Idea

From A Model of Christian Charity 3(9)

John Winthrop

From A Brief Recognition of New England's Errand into the Wilderness 12(9)

Samuel Danforth
God Speaks to the Rain

Preface to God's Determinations Touching His Elect 21(2)

Edward Taylor

From The Christian Philosopher 23(3)

Cotton Mather

The Spider Letter 26(6)

Jonathan Edwards

``Forest Hymn'' 32(4)

William Cullen Bryant

From Nature 36(13)

Ralph Waldo Emerson

``Dialogue'' 49(1)

Margaret Fuller

From Two Years before the Mast 50(3)

Richard Henry Dana, Jr.

From American Notebooks 53(5)

Nathaniel Hawthorne

From The History of the Puritan Commonwealth 58(2)

Peter Oliver

``Four Trees upon a Solitary Acre'' 60(1)

Emily Dickinson

From The Maine Woods 61(16)

Henry David Thoreau

``The Oldest Inhabitant---The Weather of New England'' 77(3)

Mark Twain

``What Pragmatism Means'' 80(14)

William James

``Out, Out---'' 94(2)

Robert Frost

``The Snow Man'' 96(1)

Wallace Stevens

From The Outermost House 97(4)

Henry Beston

``Mr. Edwards and the Spider'' 101(2)

Robert Lowell

``Another Night in the Ruins'' 103(3)

Galway Kinnell

``Mayflies'' 106(5)

Richard Wilbur
The Examined Self

From Christ the Fountain of Life 111(4)

John Cotton

``Before the Birth of One of Her Children'' 115(2)

Anne Bradstreet

Personal Narrative 117(13)

Jonathan Edwards

``I Should Have Been Too Glad, I See'' 130(2)

Emily Dickinson

From The Education of Henry Adams 132(8)

Henry Adams

From Darkwater 140(5)

W. E. B. Du Bois

``To Earthward'' 145(2)

Robert Frost

``In the Waiting Room'' 147(4)

Elizabeth Bishop

From the Richer, the Poorer 151(8)

Dorothy West
A Gallery of Portraits

From Uncle Tom's Cabin 159(6)

Harriet Beecher Stowe

From The Morgesons 165(3)

Elizabeth Stoddard

From The Bostonians 168(3)

Henry James

``Miniver Cheevy'' 171(2)

Edwin Arlington Robinson

From Literary Friends and Acquaintance 173(2)

William Dean Howells

``The Cambridge Ladies'' 175(1)

E. E. Cummings

From The Late George Apley 176(5)

John P. Marquand

From The Last Hurrah 181(3)

Edwin O'Connor

``Reunion'' 184(3)

John Cheever

``Plumbing'' 187(6)

John Updike

From Parsons' Mill 193(10)

Timothy Lewontin
Education

From New England's First Fruits 203(4)

Harvard College

Dogood Papers, No. 4 207(4)

Benjamin Franklin

From Conversations with Children 211(8)

Elizabeth Palmer Peabody

A. Bronson Alcott

From Christian Nurture 219(4)

Horace Bushnell

From ``Equality before the Law'' 223(6)

Charles Sumner

Inaugural Address 229(5)

Charles W. Eliot

``The Function of a University'' 234(4)

John Jay Chapman

``Sex Education'' 238(11)

Dorothy Canfield Fisher

Schoolmasters 249(10)

Louis Auchincloss

John McPhee

Geoffrey Wolff
Dissident Dreamers

Letter to His Wife 259(2)

John Winthrop

From The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved 261(8)

James Otis

Letters 269(4)

Abigail Adams

John Adams

Letters concerning Brook Farm 273(8)

George Ripley

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Argument before the Supreme Court in the Amistad Case 281(5)

John Quincy Adams

``The Lady in the White Dress, Whom I Helped into the Omnibus'' 286(2)

Nathaniel Parker Willis

Speech in the United States Senate 288(9)

Daniel Webster

From Three Sermons 297(9)

Theodore Parker

``Battle-Hymn of the Republic'' 306(2)

Julia Ward Howe

Transcendental Wild Oats 308(13)

Louisa May Alcott

From What Social Classes Owe to Each Other 321(7)

William Graham Sumner

``Natural Law'' 328(5)

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Broadcast Address 333(5)

John F. Kennedy

``The Green Fields of the Mind'' 338(5)

A. Bartlett Giamatti
Strangers in the Promised Land

Examination of Susanna Martin 343(3)

The Salem Court

From Eulogy on King Philip 346(10)

William Apess

From My Bondage and My Freedom 356(2)

Frederick Douglass

``The Jewish Cemetery at Newport'' 358(3)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

From The Promised Land 361(12)

Mary Antin

From ``The Case of Sacco and Vanzetti'' 373(8)

Felix Frankfurter

Journal Letters 381(6)

F. O. Matthiessen

From Boston Adventure 387(4)

Jean Stafford

``The Lottery'' 391(8)

Shirley Jackson

``For the Union Dead'' 399(3)

Robert Lowell

``From The Autobiography of Malcolm X 402(14)

Malcolm X

Alex Haley

``Her Kind'' 416(2)

Anne Sexton

From Death at an Early Age 418(4)

Jonathan Kozol

From Common Ground 422(11)

J. Anthony Lukas
The Abiding Sense of Place

``Hamatreya'' 433(3)

Ralph Waldo Emerson

``A White Heron'' 436(9)

Sarah Orne Jewett

From The American Scene 445(2)

Henry James

``Maine Speech'' 447(3)

E. B. White

Letter to The Cape Codder 450(2)

Fred Allen

``Scenic View'' 452(3)

Donald Hall
Acknowledgments 455(6)
Index 461