Timeline for Readings
By Date of Production
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Mary Rowlandson (c. 1635-c. 1678), "Indian Captivity" (1676)


















The Declaration of Independence (1776)
The Constitution of the United States of America (1789)

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), "Instructions to Meriwether Lewis" (1803)
Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809) and William Clark (1770-1838), Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806)

Lydia Maria Child, Hobomok (1824)
James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851), The Last of the Mohicans (1826--about 1760s-1770s)


Frederick Douglass (1817?-1895), Narrative (1845--about 1790s-1850s)
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896), Uncle Tom's Cabin (1851--about 1800s-1840s)
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), Walden (1854)
Walt Whitman (1819-1892); Leaves of Grass (1855-)

Bret Harte (1836-1902), "The Luck of Roaring Camp" and Other Short Stories (1870)

Brooklyn Bridge (1883)
Mark Twain (1835-1910), Roughing It (1891)
Frederick Jackson Turner(1861-1932), "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" (1893)
Thomas Edison (1847-1931), Parade of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show (1898)
Zitkala-Sa (1876-1938), "Impressions of an Indian Childhood" (1900--about 1870s-1880s)
Mary Austin (1868-1934), The Land of Little Rain (1903)
Edwin S. Porter (1869-1941), The Great Train Robbery (1903)


William Cody (1846-1917), The Adventures of Buffalo Bill (1914--about 1860s-1880s)
H.D. (1886-1961) (poetry mostly 1921-1944)
John Neihardt (1881-1973), Black Elk Speaks (1932--about 1860s-1900)
Robert Johnson (1911-1938), Crossroad Blues and Hellhound on My Tail (1936)
John Steinbeck (1902-1968), The Harvest Gypsies (1936-1939)
Zora Neale Hurston (190?-1960), Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937--about 1800s)
John Ford (1894-1973), Stagecoach (1939)
John Steinbeck (1902-1968), The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
John Ford (1894-1973), The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
William Carlos Williams (1883-1963) (poetry mostly 1909-1962)

Ray Bradbury (1920-), The Martian Chronicles (1950)
John Ford (1894-1973), The Searchers (1956)


Philip Kaufman, The Right Stuff (film) (1984--about 1960s)
Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club (1989--about 1900-present)
Peter Guralnick, Searching for Robert Johnson (1989--about 1920s-1930s)
Michael Mann, The Last of the Mohicans (film) (1992--about 1760s-1770s)
Northern Exposure (1990s)
Richard Slotkin (1942-), "The Significance of the Frontier Myth in American History" (1992)


Prepared by Professor Catherine Lavender for Honors 502 (The American Experience--Social Sciences), The Honors College of The College of Staten Island of The City University of New York, Fall Semester 2000. Send email to lavender@postbox.csi.cuny.edu
Last modified: Wednesday 23 August 2000.