Additional Resources: Suggested Readings
American Identities and Constitutional Values
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), by Mark Twain.
A classic American novel, which has attracted both admiration
and controversy since its publication in 1885. The novel is narrated
by the young, naïve, and at times ignorant Huck Finn, and
describes his relationship with runaway slave Jim in the complicated
moral world of antebellum America.
All the King's Men (1946), by Robert Penn Warren. Winner
of the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, All the King's Men
follows the rise of politician Willie Starks to the Lousiana governor's
office. The novel explores the moral dilemmas faced by those who
hold power. The novel was made into a movie in 1949.
Beloved (1987), by Toni Morrison. This novel by Nobel-laureate
Morrison explores the impact of slavery through the life of Sethe,
an escaped slave and mother who is haunted by her past. The novel
has also been adapted as a major motion picture.
Glory
(1989). This major motion picture tells the story of the 54th
Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the first regiment
of black soldiers in the Civil War. Based on the letters of Robert
Gould Shaw.
The Grapes of Wrath (1940). Dispossessed from their family
farm in the 1930s dustbowl and depression years, the Joad family
travels westward to California in search of a new life. Adapted
from the classic novel by John Steinbeck.
House on Mango Street (1984), by Sandra Cisneros. This
novel uses short stories and sketches to illustrate the life of
its narrator, a teenage Mexican-American girl living in a Chicago
barrio.
The House of Mirth (1905), by Edith Wharton. Through heroine
Lily Bart, Wharton explores the social conventions and mores of
upper-class American society during the Gilded Age.
Image
Gallery and Photo Essay About Uncle Sam.
Includes biography
of Uncle Sam.
The Joy Luck Club (1991), by Amy Tan. This novel, which
has also been adapted as a major motion picture, explores the
relationships between four Chinese women who immigrated to America
and their daughters.
Leaves of Grass (1855), by Walt Whitman. Whitman's poetic
American epic, infused throughout with a democratic sensibility.
Mr.
Smith Goes to Washington (1939). Classic 1939 Frank Capra
movie starring James Stewart as Jefferson Smith, an idealistic,
naïve head of the "Boys Rangers," who unexpectedly becomes a United
States senator.
My Antonia by Willa Cather (1918). This classic novel depicts
the various ethnic cultures of immigrants striving to establish
new lives for themselves on the Nebraska prairie.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave
(1845), by Frederick Douglass. The best and most popular of nineteenth-century
American slave narratives, which offered insights into the conventions
and cruelties of slavery.
Native Son (1940), by Richard Wright. Set in Chicago in
the 1930s, Native Son tells the story of a young black
man who kills a white woman in a moment of panic. The novel is
one of the finest explorations of race and class divisions in
American literature. It has been twice adapted as a film, first
in 1950 and later in 1987.
On
Common Ground: A Guide for Teachers
Produced in conjunction with a multimedia resource on world religions
in America by Prof. Diana Heck of Harvard University, director
of the Pluralism Project.
The Scarlet Letter (1850), by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Set
in an American colonial Puritan community, this novel explores
themes of personal responsibility, anger, loyalty, and revenge
after heroine Hester Prynne bears an illegitimate child.
Snow Falling On Cedars (1995), by David Guterson. This
novel, which was recently adapted as a major motion picture, depicts
the trial of a Japanese-American man accused of murder. Set in
the years following World War II and the wartime internment of
Japanese-Americans, the novel and film explore themes of racial
identity and discrimination, hatred, love, and forgiveness in
post-war America.
A Yellow Raft in Blue Water (1987), by Michael Dorris.
Set on an Indian reservation in Montana, this novel tells the
story of three generations of Native American women.
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