Wilfred McClay, on Nathaniel Hawthorne's vision of the intractability of human failings and the possibilities of the American experiment

Philip McFarland, on how Hawthorne's sensitivity to the darker side of human nature makes him perennially instructive

David Hackett Fischer, on the history of how Americans have understood and symbolized freedom and liberty

Wilfred McClay, from the bonus track of the CD edition, on the theme of place and communal obligation in Nathaniel Hawthorne's writing