Books That Shaped America
After a certain amount of wrangling the Library of Congress staff members have chosen the one hundred books of the twentieth century that most shaped America. If you don’t read them, you’ll never know what you’ve missed.
When these books were first published they were shocking. They made us look behind closed doors and into discretion’s we thought best covered up. These masterpieces shook up our deepest beliefs. They made us ashamed of racism, greed and narrow mindedness. They gave us a look into the eyes of poverty, abuse, sexuality and other things we thought best covered up. They changed the way Americans looked at the world and themselves. They removed the blinders from our eyes and made us question our principles. They changed our world. They showed us that nothing is set in stone and things can be changed. The list offers something for everyone of all races and cultures.
The following is a list of some of the books I have read out of the one hundred chosen books. If you would like to read them, all can be found at your library. I’m not including those I haven’t read, but I plan to make a list for my files and read them in the future.
Frederick Douglas: The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas
Tennessee Williams: A Streetcar named Desire
J.D. Salinger: Catcher in the Rye
Betty Smith: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Harper Lee: To Kill A Mocking Bird
John Stienbeck: the Grapes of Wrath
E.B.White: Charlotte’s Web
William Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury
Robert E. Heinlein: Stranger in a Strange Land
Earnest Hemingway: For Whom the Bell Tolls
Benjamin A. Botkin: A Treasury of American Folklore
Dee Brown: Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee
Rachel Carson: Silent Spring
Zora Neale Hurston: Their-Eyes-were Watching God
Margaret Mitchell: Gone With the Wind
W.E.B. Du Bois: The Souls of Black Folk
Jack London: The Call of the Wild
Robert Frost: New Hampshire
Langston Hughs: The Weary Blues
Nathaniel Hathorne: The Scarler Letter
Zane Grey: Riders of the Purple Sage
Mark Twain: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Emily Dickenson: Poems
Edgar Rice Burroughs: Tarzan of the Apes
Harriet Beecher Stowe: Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Sarah H. Bradford: Harriet, the Moses of Her People
Henry David Thoreau: Waldens Pond
Louisa May Alcott: Little Women
F.Scott-Fitzgerald: The Great Gadsby
Washington Irving: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Stephen Crane: The Red Badge of Courage
L. Frank Baum: The Wonderful World of Oz
I hope you enjoy these wonderful books as much as I have. Some of my most pleasurable moments have been spent with a good book in a shady hammock or in my comfy porch swing. I can’t wait for spring and reading out under the trees, right now my favorite reading spot is curled up on my living room couch. Have fun y’all.
Liked it
I think the Bible also shape America
I agree with the above comment.
What a great list. You are right about the pleasure they bring.
What a great list. You are correct about the pleasure these books bring.
I’d better get around to reading MORE of them. thanks for great share…I like the continuing lists that they have added to required reading in American Literature . There is nothing like our American books.
Cool and like it!
Thanks for sharing!!
I have read some of those. I still have not either read or seen the movie Gone with the Wind and I have been meaning to for years.
Great list of books, some I have read others I have yet to read!
Thanks for reminding us all of their importance!!
I love reading some on the list are hard going, I agree with the comment about the Bible and with you about the hammock ^_^
Ruby, thanks for the great list of books, I have read most of the books on your list
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Sure did bring back some memories. Great article
Really, they helped America to shape in future. Good list of the books.