The title collects 50 articles written by famous American writers and celebrities of different periods, including Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Ralph W. Emerson, Henry D. Thoreau and Henry Adams, etc. These articles relate to the race, women liberation, generation gap and education, they present a general picture of American society in all respects. These 50 articles are: 01. Reading 02. George Washington 03. Gifts 04. Night and Moonlight 05. Advice to Youth 06. American Character 07. The Fixation of Belief 08. The Social Value of the College-Bred 09. London 10. Morals Are Human 11. Love 12. Chinese Primitivism 13. The Ever-Present Past 14. Days in Paris 15. The Nature of Liberty 16. "Highbrow" and "Lowbrow" 17. The Indispensable Opposition 18. Modern Painting 19. The Cultural Importance of Art 20. The Beginning of Consciousness 21. What Do Our Hearts Treasure? 22. How We Listen to Music 23. A Day in Samoa 24. Tacitus Now 25. How to Get the Poor Off Our Conscience 26. Young Hunger 27. The Historian as Artist 28. Miss USA 29. The Rewards of Living a Solitary Life 30. To Err Is Human 31. A Sad Heart at the Supermarket 32. Paris 33. Autobiographical Notes 34. A Ride Through Spain 35. Lincoln Up Close 36. Leisure Will Kill You 37. In My Day 38. Learning for Tomorrow 39. An Experiment in Love 40. Cinderella's Stepsisters 41. First Things First 42. Beauty 43. At the Dam 44. Home of the Free 45. The Early Essays 46. What I Think, What I Am 47. The Company Man 48. On Heroes and Fools in Science 49. In Search of Our Mother's Gardens 50. Transfiguration