United States
America Now, High School Binding
Seventh Edition©2007 Robert Atwan
Table of Contents
Preface for Instructors
The Persuasive Writer: Expressing Opinions with Clarity, Confidence, and Civility
What Is America Now?
What Are Opinions?
How Do We Form Opinions?
Participating in Class Discussion: Six Basic Rules
From Discussion to Writing
The Practice of Writing
What Is "Correct English"?
Writing as a Public Activity
The Visual Expression of Opinion
Photography
JOE ROSENTHAL, Flag Raising at Iwo Jima (photograph)
THOMAS E. FRANKLIN, Three Firefighters Raising the Flag (photograph)
ALAN DIAZ, Elian Gonzalez (photograph)
Political Cartoons
DOUG MARLETTE, When it’s too late to warn Iran (cartoon)
MIKE LUCKOVICH, Monkey on Your Back (cartoon)
JACK ZIEGLER, Stem Cells (cartoon)
Opinion Ads
ACLU, The Man on the Left (advertisement)
Writing as Empowerment
1 Body Image: Is It a Serious Issue?
DEBORAH TANNEN, My Mother, My Hair
[Los Angeles Times / January 24, 2006]
ANNIE BRADFORD RISPIN, Here’s Looking at You: Is Body
Image Being Taken Too Seriously? (student essay)
[U. Magazine, The University of Texas, Austin / Fall 2005]
ANNOTATION: Summarizing Professional Research and Opinion
STUDENT WRITER AT WORK: Annie Bradford Rispin
PAIRED READINGS: Who’s in Favor of Cosmetic Surgery?
CAMILLE PAGLIA, The Pitfalls of Plastic Surgery
[Harper’s Bazaar / May 1, 2005]
ART CAREY, Men’s Faces Go Under the Knife
[The Philadelphia Inquirer / February 19, 2006]
AMERICA THEN . . . 1947
CHARLES ATLAS, The Insult That Turned a "Chump" into a Champ (advertisement)
2 Social Networking: How Is Facebook Changing Student Life?
MICHAEL BUGEJA, Facing the Facebook 73[The Chronicle of Higher Education / February 27, 2006]
Facebook [Facebook.com] (Web screen)
MySpace [MySpace.com] (Web screen)
ANGELA ADAIR FOWLER, The Facebook Addiction Spreads (student essay)
[The Reflector, Mississippi State University / January 14, 2005]
ANNOTATION: Finding Analogies
3 Cultural Identities: Can We Live Dual Lives?
JHUMPA LAHIRI, My Two Lives
[Newsweek/MSNBC.com/ March 6, 2006]
GRACE HSIANG, "FOBs" vs. "Twinkies": The New Discrimination Is Intraracial (student essay)
[Pacific News Service, University of California, Irvine / April 15, 2005]
ANNOTATION: Developing Ideas through Comparison
AMERICAN INDIAN COLLEGE FUND, If I Stay on the Rez (advertisement)
[The New York Times Magazine/ June 25, 2006]
AMERICAN INDIAN COLLEGE FUND, About Us (Web screen)
ISRA JAVED BHATTY, Reppin’ Islam (student essay)
[Diskord/Campus Progress, University of Chicago / May 2005]
STUDENT WRITER AT WORK: Isra Javed Bhatty
4 Can Genetics Explain Who We Are?
JAMES SHREEVE, The Greatest Journey
[National Geographic / March 2006]
Human Migration (map) [National Geographic /March 2006]
HENRY LOUIS GATES JR., My Yiddishe Mama
[The Wall Street Journal / February 1, 2006]
AMERICA THEN . . . 1977
ALEX HALEY, Roots
MEGAN RUNDLE, Unearthing Family Roots (student essay)
[The Digital Collegian, Pennsylvania State University / December 5, 2005]
THE NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL BOARD, Debunking the Concept of "Race" (sidebar) [The New York Times/ July 30, 2005]
ANNOTATION: Beginning with an Individual Case
STUDENT WRITER AT WORK: Megan Rundle
5 Gender Differences: How Real Are They?
JERRY SCOTT AND JIM BORGMAN, When Guys Hang Out (Zits cartoon)
[The Cincinnati Enquirer / January 1, 2006]
MARILYN VOS SAVANT, Are Men Smarter Than Women?
[Parade Magazine / July 17, 2005]
STEVEN PINKER, Sex Ed: The Science of Difference
[The New Republic/ February 14, 2005]
JUDITH KLEINFELD, What’s Going On . . . and What’s Going Wrong . . . with Our Boys?
[Open Spaces /Volume 8, Issue 2, 2006]
DAPHNE LABUA, My Brain Has a Sex? (student essay)
[The Tufts Daily, Tufts University /October 26, 2005]
ANNOTATION: The Art of Argument: Anticipating Resistance
6 Do Words Matter?
WILLIAM SAFIRE, Changing Warming
[The New York Times Magazine/ August 14, 2005]
JOHN LEO, Awash in Euphemisms
[Townhall.com/ February 27, 2006]
TAMARA SHOPSIN, The Uncitizens (cartoon)
[The New York Times/ March 26, 2006]
LUCIA PERILLO, Definition of Terms
[PMS, #5/2005]
ADAM JACOT DE BOINOD, Global Wording
[Smithsonian /March 2006]
7 The American Language Today: How Is It Changing?
CHARLES MCGRATH, The Pleasures of the Text
[The New York Times Magazine/ January 22, 2006]
AMERICA THEN . . . 1844–2006
The Telegram
ELISSA ENGLUND, Good Grammar Gets the Girl (student essay)
[The State News, Michigan State University / September 14, 2005]
ANNOTATION: Making Your Point with Examples
STUDENT WRITER AT WORK: Elissa Englund
REBECCA WHEELER, "My Goldfish Name Is Scaley": There’s Nothing to Correct
[DoubleTake/ Spring 2006]
8 Video Games: How Are They Transforming the Culture?
WILL WRIGHT, Dream Machines
[Wired/ April 2006]
REBECCA HAGELIN, Video Game Violence and Our Sons
[Townhall.com/ March 28, 2006]
BRANDON NADEAU, Video Games Make Society Less Violent (student essay)
[The Daily Campus, The University of Connecticut /October 21, 2005]
ANNOTATION: The Art of Argument: Arranging Evidence
STUDENT WRITER AT WORK: Brandon Nadeau
AMERICA THEN . . . 1976
Death Race, the Beginning of Video Game Censorship
9 Do We Need an Ethics of Buying?
PAIRED READINGS: Do We Shop Too Much?
BILL MCKIBBEN, Pie in the Sky
[Orion/ March/April 2006]
ADBUSTERS, The Evolution of Buy Nothing Day
[Adbusters / March/April 2006]
PAIRED READINGS: Are Designer Knock-Offs Ethical?
JAN GOODWIN, The Human Cost of Fakes
[Harper’s Bazaar / January 2006]
SARAH J. GERNHAUSER, The Morality of Designer
Knock-Offs (student essay)
[The Daily Reveille, Louisiana State University / January 18, 2005]
PAIRED READINGS:What Should We Do about Sweatshops?
UNITED STUDENTS AGAINST SWEATSHOPS, Solidarity Manifesto (student pamphlet)
[Studentsagainstsweatshops.org /2005]
PETER LAW, A Call for More Sweatshop Labor (student essay)
[The Columbia Daily Spectator, Columbia University / January 26, 2005]
ANNOTATION: Effective Persuasion: Recommending a Course of Action
STUDENT WRITER AT WORK: Peter Law
AMERICA THEN . . . 1899
The Powerful Theory of Conspicuous Consumption
10 The News Media: Are Opinions Replacing Facts?
DAVID WESTIN, The Truth about TV News
[The Columbia Journalism Review /March/April 2005]
MICHAEL KINSLEY, The Twilight of Objectivity
[The Washington Post / March 31, 2006]
JASON BROWNE, If You Don’t Have an Opinion, Relax (student essay)
[The Reflector Online, Mississippi State University / April 19, 2005]
WILLIAM HAEFELI, You Must Be This Tall (cartoon)
[The New Yorker/ January 9, 2006]
ANNOTATION: Using Parallel Structures
STUDENT WRITER AT WORK: Jason Browne
11 Are Science and Religion Compatible?
AMERICA THEN . . . 1925
The Scopes Monkey Trial
OPPOSING VIEWS: The Intelligent Design Debate
JOHN ANGUS CAMPBELL AND STEPHEN C. MEYER, Evolution: Debate It
[USA Today.com/ August 14, 2005]
The Evolution Debate (sidebar)
[USA Today.com/ August 14, 2005]
EUGENIE C. SCOTT AND GLENN BRANCH, Evolution: Just Teach It
[USA Today.com/ August 14, 2005]
CHASE MITCHELL, Age-Old Debate: Creationist Students in the Science Classroom (student essay)
[The Auburn Plainsman, Auburn University /October 13, 2005]
ANDREW THOMSON, A Creationist Student and an Evolutionist
Instructor (student cartoon) [The Auburn Plainsman, Auburn University / October 13, 2005]
ANNOTATION: Using Quotations
G. B. TRUDEAU, "Uh-Oh . . ." (Doonesbury comic strip)
[The Boston Sunday Globe /December 18, 2005]
12 Torture: Can It Ever Be Justified?
DAN MOLLISON, Say No to Torture (student essay)
[The Daily Illini, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign / December 7, 2005]
ANNOTATION: Establishing a Main Point
STUDENT WRITER AT WORK: Dan Mollison
JOHN MCCAIN, Torture’s Terrible Toll
[Newsweek/MSNBC.com/November 21, 2005]
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, The Truth about Torture
[The Weekly Standard /December 5, 2005]
CATHY YOUNG, Torturing Logic
[Reason/March 2006]
Information for Subscription
Index of Authors and Titles
Robert Atwan
Robert Atwan is the series editor of the annual Best American Essays, which he founded in 1985. A former director of The Blue Hills Writing Institute at Curry College, Atwan has published essays, reviews, and critical articles in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Iowa Review, Denver Quarterly, Kenyon Review, River Teeth, Creative Nonfiction, and many other publications. For Bedford/St. Martin’s, he has also edited Ten on Ten: Major Essayists on Recurring Themes (1992); Our Times (1998); and Convergences (2009). He has coedited (with Jon Roberts) Left, Right, and Center: Voices from Across the Political Spectrum (1996) and is editor of America Now (2017).
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