This is a list of 10 classic works that helped to shape our nation:

1. Common Sense - Thomas Paine's pamphlet made a case that the colonies should break with Great Britain.

2. The Federalist Papers - These 85 essays, written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, implored Americans to embrace and accept the Constitution lest the young nation fall apart.

3. Uncle Tom's Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe's controversial novel about slavery in America became a best seller in its time and was a major factor in the development of antislavery sentiment.

4. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain's follow-up to "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" is hailed by many critics and writers as the first great American novel.

5. Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell's epic romance novel brought Scarlett, Rhett, and Tara to the world, won a Pulitzer Prize, became a best seller, and was adapted to become one of the highest grossing movies of all time.

6. The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck's story about a displaced Oklahoma family forced to abandon their farm and seek work as migrant workers during the Dust Bowl phenomenon of the early 1930s won the author a Pulitzer Prize.

7. Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison's invisible man is not the victim of a freak science experiment but an African American man who struggles with the fact that goes largely unseen by the larger white culture. By the end of this 600-page novel, the reader still has not learned the main character's name.

8. Catch-22 - We all know war is hell, but Joseph Heller's book showed us that war could also be absurd. This satirical look at World War II contributed to the American lexicon the phrase catch-22, meaning, an illogical set of rules that stymie well-meaning people at every turn.

9. Silent Spring - Rachel Carson's unflinching nonfiction examination of how pesticides have polluted our world is credited with sparking the birth of the environmental movement in the United States.

10. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee - Dee Brown's book examines the history of the United States through the eyes of Native Americans, paying special attention to their mistreatment at the hands of European Americans. The title of this controversial best seller refers to the massacre that took place near Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota.