Blair Reader: Exploring Contemporary Issues Book

Topical Clusters     VIII
Rhetorical Table of Contents     XVI
Preface     XXIV
Introduction: Becoming a Critical Reader     1
Family Ties     12
"Those Winter Sundays"     15
"One Last Time"     16
"Once More to the Lake"     23
"No Name Woman"     29
"Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self"     40
"The Unauthorized Autobiography of Me"     47
Fiction: Harlan Coben, "The Key to My Father"     56
Focus: Does Gay Marriage Threaten the Family?     61
"What Are We Fighting For?"     62
"What Marriage Is For"     65
"Marriage Just Lets the State Back In"     72
Issues in Education     80
"The Sanctuary of School"     83
"School Is Bad for Children"     86
"School's Out"     91
"Graduation"     103
"The Good Immigrant Student"     113
"For More Balance on Campuses"     121
Fiction: Edward P. Jones, "The First Day"     124
Focus: How Much Do a College's Facilities Really Matter? (Photo essay)     129
The Politics of Language     134
"Baca Grande"     137
"Aria"     139
"Two Languages in Mind, But Just One in the Heart"     146
"Learning to Read and Write"     150
"You Can't Say That"     155
"Sexism in English: Embodiment and Language"     158
"Mother Tongue"     170
"The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society"     175
"Propaganda Under a Dictatorship"     183
"Politics and the English Language"     189
Focus: How Free Should Free Speech Be?     201
"The Free-Speech Follies"     202
"A Chill Wind Is Blowing in This Nation"     206
"It's Time to Junk the Double Standard on Free Speech"     211
Media and Society     218
Speech to Radio-Television News Directors Association     221
"Television: The Plug-In Drug"     231
"Reality TV: A Dearth of Talent and the Death of Morality"     239
"Is Music Piracy Stealing?"     242
"Eminem Is Right"     250
"Who Shot Mohammed al-Dura?"     257
Fiction: Amanda Holzer, "Love and Other Catastrophes: A Mix Tape"     272
Focus: Has the Internet Doomed the Newspaper?     274
"Bad News"     275
"A Loser's Game"     285
"Not Just Another Column about Blogging"     290
Life and Lifestyle     298
"The World Is Too Much with Us"     301
"The Transformation of Everyday Life"     302
"The Boredom Effect"     310
"Putting Up the Gates"     314
"Supersize Me"     318
"The Fashion Victim's Ten Commandments"     326
Focus: Can We Build Real Communities Online?
"Connecting Communities: On and Offline"     341
"What Adolescents Miss when We Let Them Grow Up in Cyberspace"     349
"The Internet in a Cup"     351
Gender and Identity     362
"Barbie Doll"     365
"Rite of Passage"     366
"Gardenland, Sacramento, California"     367
"The M/F Boxes"     374
"Why I Want a Wife"     380
"Stay-at-Home Dads"     382
"Without Apology: Girls, Women, and the Desire to Fight"     385
"Marked Women"     393
Focus: Is There a Gender Crisis in Education?     399
"The War Against Boys"     400
"Boy Problems"     405
"Men Are from Earth, and So Are Women"     408
The American Dream     418
"We May Be Brothers"     421
"Why the Americans Are So Restless in the Midst of Their Prosperity"     423
"The Library Card"     427
"Becoming American"     435
"The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria"     442
"Coming Into The Country"     447
"Just Walk On By"     450
"On Dumpster Diving"     454
Fiction: Amy Tan "Two Kinds"     465
Focus: What Is the American Dream?     476
The Declaration of Independence     477
"The New Colossus"     480
Inaugural Address     481
"I Have a Dream"     485
Why We Work     492
"Why We Work"     495
"Professions for Women"     500
"The Second Shift"     505
"Behind the Counter"     511
"Selling in Minnesota"     519
"Delusions of Grandeur"     523
"What Nurses Stand For"     526
Fiction: Jamaica Kincaid "Girl"     536
Focus: Is Outsourcing Bad for America?     538
"Let Someone Else Do It: The Impulse Behind Everything"     539
"Missed Target: Is Outsourcing Really So Bad?"     542
"Fair Exchange: Who Benefits from Outsourcing?"     548
Science and Human Values      558
"Apollo"     561
Is Global Warming Fact or Fiction?     563
"Global Warming: Is It Already Too Late?"     564
"Climate Change: Menace or Myth?"     569
"The False Alert of Global Warming"     575
Can the Energy Crisis Be Solved?     581
"Over a Barrel"     582
"Energy's Future"     592
"The End of Oil"     602
Are Men Better in Math and Science than Women?     611
Remarks at NBER Conference on Diversifying the Science & Engineering Workforce     613
Response to Lawrence Summers     622
"Summers of Our Discontent"     627
"The Truth about Men and Women"     630
Religion in America     636
"Salvation"     639
"Our Faith in Science"     641
"Among the Believers"     644
"Kicking the Secularist Habit"     647
"Turning Faith into Elevator Music"     652
"Muslim in America"     655
"Earthly Empires"     659
Fiction: Raymond Carver "Cathedral"     666
Focus: Is There Intelligent Design in Nature?     679
"Finding Design in Nature"     680
"Why Intelligent Design Isn't"      682
"Finding Darwin's God"     692
Making Choices     706
"The Road Not Taken"     709
"Ethics"     710
"The Deer at Providencia"     711
"Shooting an Elephant"     715
"Civil Disobedience"     722
"Letter from Birmingham Jail"     741
"Dog Lab"     756
"The Perils of Obedience"     764
Fiction: Ursula K. Le Guin "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"     777
Focus: Can We Be Both Free and Safe?     783
"The Most Patriotic Act"     784
"Why Liberty Suffers in Wartime"     786
"Imbalance of Power"     790
Credits     799
Index of Authors and Titles     811