The Bill of Rights (1791).
Carnegie, Andrew. "How I Served My Apprenticeship," and "The Gospel of Wealth." In The Gospel of Wealth and Other Timely Essays. Edited by Edward C. Kirkland. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1962, pp. 3-49.
Casas, Bartolomé de las. In Defense of the Indians (c. 1552). Translated by Stafford Poole. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1992, pp. 25-30.
The Constitution (1787).
The Declaration of Independence (1776).
"The Declaration of Independence: The Jefferson Draft with Congress's Editorial Changes." In Pauline Maier, American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence. New York: Knopf, 1997, pp. 235-241.
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself (1845). New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001.
DuBois, W. E. B. The Souls of Black Folk (1903). In Three Negro Classics. Edited by John Hope Franklin. New York: Avon, 1970, Forethought, chap. 1, 3-4, 7-8, 14, and Afterthought.
Easy Rider (1969).
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "The American Scholar" (1837) and "Self-Reliance" (1841). In The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 6th ed. Edited by Nina Baym et al. New York: W. W. Norton, 2003, pp. 1135-1147 and 1160-1176.
Franklin, Benjamin. "The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin," "Poor Richard's Maxims," "Remarks Concerning the Savages of North-America," and "The Way to Wealth." In Autobiography and Other Writings. Edited by Ormond Seavey. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique (1963). New York: W. W. Norton, 2001, chap. 1-3, 10, 12-13.
Ginsberg, Allen. "A Supermarket in California" (1956), and "America" (1956). In The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, 2nd ed. Edited by Richard Ellmann and Robert O'Clair. New York: W. W. Norton, 1988, pp. 1215-1218.
Ginsberg, Allen. "Howl" (1956). In The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 6th ed. Edited by Nina Baym et al. New York: W. W. Norton, 2003, pp. 2865-2872.
Hamilton, Alexander, James Madison, and John Jay. The Federalist Papers (1788). New York: Bantam Books, 1982, nos. 1-6, 9-10, 14, 37-39, 44-46, 51, 84-85.
Jefferson, Thomas. "Notes on the State of Virginia" (1785), "An Act for Establishing Religious Freedom" (1786), and "Correspondence with Benjamin Banneker" (1791). In Notes on the State of Virginia. New York: Penguin, 1999, pp. 1-204, 231-232, and 271-275.
Keller, Helen. The Story of My Life (1903). New York: Bantam Books, 1990.
King, Jr., Martin Luther. "Letter from Birmingham Jail" (1963). In Why We Can't Wait. New York: Harper & Row, 1964, pp. 76-95.
Lincoln, Abraham. Selected Speeches and Writings. New York: Vintage Books, 1992. (PDF)
Losada, Ángel. "The Controversy between Sepúlveda and Las Casas in the Junta of Valladolid." In Bartolomé de las Casas in History: Toward an Understanding of the Man and His Work. Edited by Juan Friede and Benjamin Keen. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1971, pp. 279-300.
Luce, Henry R. "The American Century" (1941). In The Ideas of Henry Luce. Edited by John K. Jessup. New York: Atheneum, 1969, pp. 105-120.
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano. "The Four Freedoms" (1941), and "War Message to Congress" (1941). In The American Reader. Edited by Diane Ravitch. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990, pp. 281-284.
Sledge, E. B. With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981, pp. 1-158, 161-315.
Thoreau, Henry David. "Resistance to Civil Government" (1849). In The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 6th ed. Edited by Nina Baym et al. New York: W. W. Norton, 2003, pp. 1792-1807.
United Nations General Assembly. Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).
Veblen, Thorstein. "Conspicuous Consumption." In The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899). New York: Penguin Books, 1994, pp. 68-101.
Washington, Booker T. Up From Slavery (1901). In Three Negro Classics. Edited by John Hope Franklin. New York: Avon, 1970, chap. 1-5, 7-8, and 10-14.
Winthrop , John. "A Model of Christian Charity" (1630). In The American Puritans: Their Prose and Poetry. Edited by Perry Miller. New York: Columbia University Press, 1956, pp. 78-84.