Volume 1. Guest foreword -- Introduction -- Acknowledgments -- Advisors -- Contributors -- Literary chronology -- The American dream: overview -- Absalom, Absalom! -- Adventures of huckleberry Finn -- ... And the earth did not devour him -- Autobiography of my dead brother -- The autobiography of Benjamin Franklin -- The big money -- Black elk speaks -- Call it sleep -- Cane -- Chronicle of the Narva Ez expedition -- Common sense -- Daisy Miller -- Death of a salesman -- The declaration of independence -- Elbow room -- Finding my voice -- Grapes of wrath -- The great gatsby -- House made of dawn -- John F. Kennedy's inaugural address -- Little house on the prairie.

Volume 2. Lonesome dove -- Main street -- "Mending wall" -- "A model of Christian charity" -- Montage of a dream deferred -- "My kinsman, major molineux" -- On the road -- O pioneers! -- Our town -- Rabbit, run -- Self-reliance -- Sister Carrie -- "Song of myself" -- White house correspondents' association dinner 2006 speech -- The American dream in the nineteenth century -- The American dream in the twentieth century -- The American dream today -- The African American dream -- The American dream abroad -- The American feminist dream -- The American political dream -- The Asian American dream -- The colonial American dream -- The frontier American dream -- The Hispanic American dream -- The immigrant American dream -- The Native American dream -- The southern American dream -- What do I read next? -- Media adaptations -- Glossary of literary terms -- Author/title index -- Nationality/ethnicity index.