Since 2003, the non-profit project StoryCorps has collected more than 35,000 oral histories from everyday people around the country. By recording their stories—intimately told to families and friends—readers can share in the experience of America’s history, hopes, and humanity.

Now the most remarkable stories from the entire astonishing pool of memories are gathered together for this uniquely important book filled with ordinary and extraordinary things—joy, sadness, courage, meaning, despair, good work and bad work, good times and hard times.