The Promise of America Book

Introduction

“The Erosion of Confidence,” Jimmy Carter (1979)

“We Have Seen the State of Our Union,” George W. Bush (2001)

Chapter One: The Promise of Social Equality & the Right to Vote

“The Virginia Declaration of Rights,” George Mason (1776) & “The Declaration of Independence,” Thomas Jefferson (1776)

“Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions,” Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1848)

“Dredd Scott v. Sandford,” Chief Justice Taney (1857)

“The Gettysburg Address,” Abraham Lincoln (1863)

“Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage,” Frederick Douglass (1867)

“Address to the First Annual Meeting of the American Equal Rights Association,” Sojourner Truth (1867)

“On Women’s Right to Vote,” Susan B. Anthony (1872)

“What is Patriotism?” Emma Goldman (1908)

“The Four Freedoms,” Franklin D. Roosevelt (1941)

“Ask Not What Your Country Can Do for You,” John F. Kennedy (1961)

“I Have a Dream,” Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963)

“The Great Society,” Lyndon B. Johnson (1964)

“For the Equal Rights Amendment,” Shirley Chisholm (1970)

“We Have Made a Difference,” Ronald Reagan (1989)

“Women’s Rights are Human Rights,” Hillary Rodham Clinton (1995)

Chapter Two: The Promise of Education

“Our Schools and Our Children,” Mike Rose (1989)

“Pedagogy and Political Commitment: A Comment,” bell hooks (1989)

“Reverse Racism, or How the Pot Got to Call the Kettle Black,” Stanley Fish (1993)

“Marketers are Storming the Schoolhouse,” Michael J. Sandel (1997)

“Black College in (White) America,” Kenyatta Matthews (2001)

“Education Reform: Teachers and Schools,” Blouke Carus (2004)

“Which Number Will You Be?” Dacia Charlesworth (2004)

“Where Everyone Can Overachieve,” Victoria Murphy (2004)

“The Perfect Law: No Child Left Behind and the Assault on Public Schools,” Gerald W. Bracey (2004)

“The Truth about Harvard,” Ross Douthat (2005)

“The Moral Imperative,” James Traub (2005)

“The College Dropout Boom,” David Leonhardt (2005)

Chapter Three: The Promise of a Free Press

“Censorship and Privacy,” Walter Lippmann (1922)

“Propaganda Mill,” Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky (1988)

“The Bias of Language, the Bias of Pictures,” Neil Postman and Steve Powers (1992)

“All the News,” Frank Rich (2006)

“’They Think You’re a Traitor” Bernard Goldberg (2002)

“You're Only As Liberal As the Man Who Owns You,” Eric Alterman (2003)

“Common Media for an Uncommon Nation,” Ben H. Bagdikian (2004)

“The Importance of Communication in a Global World: Not ‘Me to Me to Me,’” Virgil Scudder (2004)

“Web of Influence,” Daniel W. Drezner and Henry Farrell (2004)

“Technology and the Rule of Law in the Digital Age: Protection of Intellectual Property,” Bob Wright (2004)

Chapter Four: The Promise of Health

“The Clan of One-Breasted Women,” Terry Tempest Williams (1992)

“Can Managed Care Make a Difference?: Chart a Sound Course with Ethically Guiding Principles,” Mark H. Tabak (1997)

“The Impoverished Way,” from The American Way of Birth, Jessica Mitford (1999)

“The Future of Aging: Social Consequences of the Biomedical Revolution,” Sidney Taurel (2001)

“Africa is Different from a Poor American Neighborhood: AIDS as a World-Wide Socioeconomic Issue,” Michael Scotti (2001)

“Burden of Oath,” Linda Peeno (2003)

“Gender and Ritual: Giving Birth the American Way,” Robbie E. Davis-Floyd (2004)

“America’s Promises,” New York Times editorial (2005)

“The Moral-Hazard Myth,” Malcolm Gladwell (2005)

Chapter Five: The Promise of Work and Success

“Harvest Gypsies,” John Steinbeck (1936)

“The Men We Carry in Our Minds,” Scott Russell Sanders (1987)

“Losing: An America Tradition,” Charles Young (2000)

“Success,” Eric Schlosser (2001)

“Nobody Beats the Whiz: ‘What do people fear more than death,’” Benjamin Cheever (2001)

“How Corporate Law Inhibits Social Responsibility,” Robert Hinkley (2002)

“Workers of the World, Relax,” Alain De Botton (2004)

“Everyday Low Wages: The Hidden Price We All Pay for Wal-Mart” (2004)

“I Am Offered a ‘Job,’” Barbara Ehrenreich (2005)

Chapter Six: The Promises of Equality and Civil Liberty

“Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963)

“On the Death of Martin Luther King, Jr.,” Robert F. Kennedy (1968)

“The Case for Torture,” Michael Levin (1982)

“America’s Best Days are Yet to Come,” Ronald Reagan (1992)

“Lessons of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,” Cesar Chavez (1990)

“The Church of Civil Rights,” Wilfred M. McClay (2004)

“A More Perfect Union,” Jonathan Rauch (2004)

“Hillbangers,” Matthew Brzezinski (2004)

“They’re Coming for Your Land,” Timothy Sandefur (2005)

“The Newest Indians,” Jack Hitt (2005)

“We’re Missing Some Senators,” Anna Quindlen (2005)

Chapter Seven: America’s Promises

“Keep America Rolling: Emerging Better, Stronger, and More Confident,” Rick Wagoner (2001)

“Just War–or a Just War?” Jimmy Carter (2003)

“Torture: Thinking about the Unthinkable,” Andrew C. McCarthy (2004)

“United States and Europe: Standing Together against Common Enemies,” John McCain (2004)

“The Hope is There: Looking Toward the Next Horizon,” John Kerry (2004)

“The Atlantic Widens,” T. R. Reid (2004)

“The Axis of Oil,” Jehangir Pocha (2005)

“No Country Left Behind,” Colin L. Powell (2005)

“Downloading Democracy,” Robert Conquest (2004/2005)

“Who Are Americans to Think That Freedom is Theirs to Spread?” Michael Ignatieff (2005)

“Transformational Diplomacy,” Condoleezza Rice (2006)

Appendix I

The Constitution of the United States of America and Amendments I through XXVI.