The works selected for this book range from an 18th-century portrait of George Washington to a 1995 image of Thomas Jefferson, from landscapes of the Hudson River School to views of the American West, and from American Impressionism to 20th-century Realism. All touch upon dreams that have shaped the American experience.

Commentaries illuminate the work of such artists as Thomas Cole, Edward Hopper, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, and Georgia O'Keeffe. American artists may be noted for their unaffected "plain speaking, " but their images take us far beyond what they actually saw. Since the earliest days of the new republic, our artists have created complex works with layered meanings, some obvious, others hidden.