description: The American literary tradition is so rich and varied that the Penguin Classics editors have grouped the collection into two volumes, with Volume I focused on the novels, short stories, and poetry through the 19th century, and Volume II focused on the political writings, memoirs, and narratives that chronicle the birth and growth of the nation.  In Volume II: Foundations in Democracy, you'll find early accounts of Native American life in the journals of artist George Catlin; colonial narratives from St. John de Crevecouer (Letters from an American Farmer and Sketches of Eighteenth Century America); the captivity narratives of Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs (Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl), and Sojourner Truth; the autobiographies, memoirs, and notes of Ulysses S. Grant, Thomas Jefferson, William Tecumseh Sherman, Abraham Lincoln, and Benjamin Franklin; the essays and poetry of Emerson; The Federalist Papers by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay, considered by Thomas Jefferson to be the best commentary on the principle of government ever written; the transcendentalist writings of Henry David Thoreau (including "Civil Disobedience," perhaps the most famous essay in American literature); and much more.  From the Age of Reason through Romanticism, Transcendentalism, the Civil War, the western movement of the 1800s, to the dawn of the 20th century, the canvas of American history bursts forth with the ingenuity, exuberance, and democratic spirit that is the foundation of the nation.  Included are 43 titles:  The Letters of John and Abigail Adams by John and Abigail Adams The Portable John Adams by John Adams North American Indians by George Catlin The Loss of the Ship Essex, Sunk by a Whale by Owen Chase Letters from an American Farmer and Sketches of Eighteenth-Century America by J. Hector St. John De Crevecoeur Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville Chronicle of the Narvaez Expedition by Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca American Notes for General Circulation by Charles Dickens Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave by Frederick Douglass My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass Nature and Selected Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson The Interesting Narrative and Other Writings by Olaudah Equiano The Autobiography and Other Writings by Benjamin Franklin Personal Memoirs by Ulysses S. Grant The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay Army Life in a Black Regiment by Thomas Wentworth Higginson Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs Pragmatism and Other Writings by William James The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James Notes on the State of Virginia by Thomas Jefferson Behind the Scenes by Elizabeth Keckley The Journals of Lewis and Clark by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark Rights of Man by Thomas Paine Common Sense by Thomas Paine The Thomas Paine Reader by Thomas Paine The Oregon Trail by Francis Parkman The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons by John Wesley Powell The Private Journal of William Reynolds by William Reynolds Memoirs by William Tecumseh Sherman A Texas Cowboy by Charles A. Siringo The Falcon by John Tanner A Year in Thoreau's Journal by Henry David Thoreau Walden and Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers by Henry David Thoreau Domestic Manners of the Americans by Fanny Trollope Narrative of Sojourner Truth by Sojourner Truth Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington Against Slavery: An Abolitionist Reader Colonial American Travel Narratives Early American Writing Women's Indian Captivity Narratives Women's Early American Historical Narratives
language: English
title: The American Collection, Vol. II: Foundations In Democracy
titlecomplete: The American Collection, Vol. II: Foundations In Democracy
publisher: Penguin Books