Synopses & Reviews
This text comprises contemporary and historical readings, mostly short essays, organized around nine themes relevant to various aspects of the American Dream. In addition to the 87 reading selections in Part II, this relatively compact reader offers five substantive chapters on reading and writing; each of these includes instruction, sample readings, and exercises. Substantial, unintrusive apparatus includes chapter introductions and suggested topics for writing, selection headnotes, vocabulary lists with definitions, and questions for discussion.
Synopsis
This text comprises contemporary and historical readings, mostly short essays, organized around nine themes relevant to various aspects of the American Dream. In addition to the 87 reading selections in Part II, this relatively compact reader offers five substantive chapters on reading and writing; each of these includes instruction, sample readings, and exercises. Substantial, unintrusive apparatus includes chapter introductions and suggested topics for writing, selection headnotes, vocabulary lists with definitions, and questions for discussion.
Table of Contents
To the Instructor To the Student PART I. ABOUT READING AND WRITING 1. Reading, Summarizing, Responding Active Reading / Summarizing / Writing a Longer Summary / From Summary to Response / 2. The Writing Process Thinking about Audience and Purpose / Inventing a Reader / Taking It a Step at a Time / 3. Writing an Essay From Talking to Writing / Elements of an Essay / Organizing an Essay / Working with Sources / 4. Writing an Essay of Argument or Persuasion Basic Structure of Persuasive Writing / Informal Fallacies / 5. Writing Effective Paragraphs How Paragraphs Work / Topic Sentences / Placing the Topic Sentence / Writing a Good Topic Sentence / Putting Meat on the Bones / Making Connections: Improving Coherence / PART II. READINGS FOR WRITING Introduction to the Readings 6. The Dream Begins James Oliver Robertson, Banners on the Towers / Robert Beverley, An Account of the Settlement of Virginia / Barbara Tuchman, On Our Birthday—America as Idea / Michel Guillaume Jean de Crévecoeur, Letter III: / What Is an American? / Robert Hughes, The Puritan Legacy / Gustavus Vassa (Olaudah Equiano), The Slave Ship / Red Jacket, Speech to the Missionaries / Student Essay: What Is an American? by Sarah Isom / 7. Success, American-Style, and the Pursuit of Happiness Frederick Lewis Allen, Horatio Alger / Karen Heller, By Success Obsessed / Amy Tan, Two Kinds / Studs Terkel, Stephen Cruz / E. B. White, The Second Tree from the Corner / Alexis de Tocqueville, Equality and Materialism / John Cheever, The Enormous Radio / Bob Greene, Brides’ Magazines: Unhappiness Unthinkable / Francine Russo, Can the Government Prevent Divorce? / Student Essay: Mr. Trexler’s Tree, by Manon Sheiman / 8. In and Out of the Melting Pot Dudley Randall, The Melting Pot / Jamake Highwater, The Intellectual Savage / Mary Gordon, More Than Just a Shrine: Paying Homage to the Ghosts of Ellis Island / Joe Klein, The Good Life and Long Hours of Nguyen Nguu / Richard Rodriguez, Gains and Losses / John Rothchild, Melting Pot High / Ishmael Reed, America: The Multinational Society / The Economist, How to Stir the Melting Pot / Aurora Levins Morales, Child of the Americas / Student Essay: Nguyen Nguu, Creating His America, by Penny M. Anderson / 9. A Dream Deferred James Baldwin, My Dungeon Shook: Letter to My Nephew / Zora Neale Hurston, How It Feels to Be Colored Me / Maya Angelou, Champion of the World / Brent Staples, Black Men and Public Space / Martin Luther King, Jr., Three Ways of Responding to Oppression / Malcolm X, The Ballot or the Bullet / Richard Majors, Cool Pose: The Proud Signature of Black Survival / Shelby Steele, Ghettoized by Black Unity / Sam Fulwood III, The Rage of the Black Middle Class / Student Essay: The Heart of Black America, by Brandy Wolff / 10. Rugged Individuals Charles Beard, Individualism / Andrew Carnegie, The “Good Old Times”Were Not / Patrick Gerster and Nicholas Cords, The Myth of Individualism / Gretel Ehrlich, About Men / Barbara Cawthorne Crafton, Men Are Very Delicate / Hunter S. Thompson, A Vanishing Breed / Stephanie Coontz, A Nation of Welfare Families / Mary Rowlandson, It Is Good for Me That I Have Been Afflicted / Student Essay: It Is No Myth, by John Ernst / 11. Dream Makers: Heroes and Celebrities Daniel Boorstin, The Hero and the Celebrity / Joseph Campbell, with Bill Moyers, The Hero’s Adventure / Robert Bellah, Richard Madsen, William M. Sullivan, Ann Swidler, and Steven M. Tipton, Mythic Individualism / David Halberstam, Rosa Parks / Eddy L. Harris, Twelve Seconds at Kitty Hawk / Frederick Lewis Allen, The Popularity of Lindbergh / David Halberstam, Marilyn Monroe / Jules Feiffer, Faster Than a Speeding Bullet / Barbara Grizzuti Harrison, The Importance of Being Oprah / Student Essay: Read All about It: The Age of Fallen Heroes, by Elena Olson / 12. Building the Dream on the Job and in Cyberspace Cotton Mather, A Man in a Boat / Marge Piercy, To Be of Use / Wendell Berry, The Joy of Work / Barbara Ehrenreich, Farewell to Work / Robert Wright, The Mike Mulligan Moment / Amy Saltzman, The Changing Workplace / Barbara Garson, McDonald’s—We Do It All for You / Walter Isaacson, In Search of the Real Bill Gates / James Traub, Drive-Thru U. / Student Essay: The Rewards of the Harvest, by Patrick Shaffer / 13. Self and Society Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance / W. H. Auden, The Unknown Citizen / Hillary Rodham Clinton, It Takes a Village / Ellen Goodman, The Company Man / Annie Dillard, Lessons of an American Mother / Elena Asturias, Growing Up in the U. S.: A First Generation Look / Kurt Vonnegut, Harrison Bergeron / Timothy Egan, Turning Our Towns into Private Fortresses / Student Essay: The Power of Mother, by Rachel Howard / 14. The Dream Revised Andrei Codrescu, The Uses of American Space / Richard Rodriguez, Go North, Young Man / Frances Fitzgerald, The Castro / Celeste MacLeod, The American Reality / Pico Iyer, The Global Village Finally Arrives / Ruth Sidel, The New American Dreamers / Haunani-Kay Trask, Two Histories / Catherine Lim, Paper / T. Obinkaramechewa, A Nigerian Looks at America / Langston Hughes, Let America Be America Again / Student Essay: This New American, by Sarah Isom Acknowledgments Index to the Readings by Rhetorical Strategy (Mode) Index of Authors and Titles