This thought-provoking anthology allows students to improve their awareness of others and themselves. The study of diverse American Lives, presented first-hand by those who lived them, is an excellent way to become more thoughtful about life as an American citizen. This anthology-reader is comprised of substantial excerpts from eleven deeply moving autobiographies, written by distinguished men and women from diverse ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic backgrounds: Benjamin Franklin, Frederick Douglass, Jacob Riis, Mary Antin, Booker T. Washington, Dick Gregory, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Richard Rodriguez, Maxine Hong Kingston, Theodore Roosevelt, and Malcolm X. The excerpted lives are presented in pairs, which at first glance seem vastly different, however they illustrate similar themes, such as the internal requirements for freedom, the meaning of active citizenship, or living between two cultures.