1. On Reading and Thinking Critically
2. From Reading to Writing
Jennifer E. Smith, Questioning the Promises of Science [student essay]
]Rudy Rubio, The Gender Gap [student essay]
3. Education
John Henry Newman, The Idea of a University
Mission Statements from The University of Minnesota; Morehouse College; The Evergreen State College; California State University, Monterey Bay; ]Berea College; and Thomas Aquinas College
Jon Spayde, Learning in the Key of Life [with commentary from Bonnie Sunstein, education professor]
Adrienne Rich, What Does a Woman Need to Know?
Jennifer L. Croissant, Can This Campus Be Bought?
Mike Rose, Lives on the Boundary
Michael Sokolove, Football Is a Sucker’s Game
]Slate’s College Makeover: Allison Gopnik, Let Them Solve Problems; K. Anthony Appiah, Learn Statistics. Go Abroad; and S. Georgia Nugent, Morality-Based Learning [annotated and with readers’ response]
]John Tierney, Male Pride and Female Prejudice
]Christina Hoff Sommers, The War Against Boys
]Katha Pollitt, Girls Against Boys?
]Roland G. Fryer, Acting White [with commentary from Kareem Johnson, psychology professor]
Gwendolyn Brooks, We Real Cool
4. Ethics
Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail
Stephen L. Carter, The Rules about the Rules
Jessica Cohen, Grade A: The Market for a Yale Woman’s Eggs
Mark Clayton, A Whole Lot of Cheatin’ Going On
Michael Pollan, An Animal’s Place [with commentary from Jan Weber, documentary filmmaker]
]Kay S. Hymowitz, Scenes from the Exhibitionists
Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, The Making of a Divorce Culture
]Malcolm Gladwell, The Moral Hazard Myth [with commentary from Russell Kirby, public health professor]
]David Gratzer, Where Would You Rather Be Sick?
]Jane Mayer, Whatever It Takes [annotated and with readers’ response]
]John Yoo, With ÒAll Necessary and Appropriate ForceÓ
]Nora Naranjo-Morse, Ta
5. Science and Technology
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
]Michael Chorost, My Bionic Quest for Bolero [annotated]
J. Michael Bishop, Enemies of Promise
Jeremy Rifkin, Biotech Century: Playing Ecological Roulette with Mother Nature’s Designs
James Q. Wilson, Cars and Their Enemies
]Denise Grady, Struggling Back from War’s Once-Deadly Wounds [with commentary from Michelle Gittler, physician]
]Gregg Easterbrook, The New Fundamentalism
]Bobby Henderson, ÒOpen Letter to the Kansas Board of Education,Ó from Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster Web site
]Christine Rosen, The Image Culture [with commentary from Treena Crochet, art historian]
6. Identities
Sojourner Truth, Ain’t I a Woman
]Andrew Sullivan, The End of Gay Culture
Maxine Hong Kingston, No Name Woman
Dave Barry, Guys vs. Men [annotated and with readers’ response]
Zora Neale Hurston, How It Feels to Be Colored Me
]Tyina L. Steptoe, An Ode to Country Music from a Black Dixie Chick
Andre Dubus, Witness
Robert D. King, Should English Be the Law?
]Lynda Barry, Common Scents [with commentary from Donna Light-Donovan, biology teacher]
Bich Minh Nguyen, The Good Immigrant Student
]Sherman Alexie, What Sacagawea Means to Me [with commentary by Timothy Shannon, history professor]
Kevin Bradsher, Reptile Dreams
]Susanna Ashton, Making Peace with the Greeks
Langston Hughes, Theme for English B
7. American Cultural Myths
Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence
Frederick Douglass, What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?
]Dulce Pinz—n, photo essay on superheroes [color insert]
Margaret Atwood, A Letter to America
Philippe Legrain, Cultural Globalization Is Not Americanization
David Brooks, One Nation, Slightly Divisible [with commentary by Robert Bulman, sociology professor]
Barbara Kingsolver, And Our Flag Was Still There
]Mim Udovitch, Secret Society of the Starving [with commentary by Lisa Galynker, pyschologist]
Stephanie Coontz, The Way We Wish We Were
]Nicholas Lemann, In the Ruins
]John Leo, Free Inquiry? Not on Campus [annotated and with readers’ response]
8. Business and Labor
Meridel Lesueur, Women and Work
Naomi Barko, The Other Gender Gap: Why Women Still Fail to Receive Comparable Wages for Comparable Work
Steven Pinker, From Gender [annotated and with readers’ response]
bell hooks, Work Makes Life Sweet
Dagoberto Gilb, Work Union
]Eric Schlosser, The Most Dangerous Job [with commentary by Marjorie Butler, labor lawyer]
]James Surowiecki, Don’t Do the Math [with commentary by Rosemary Cunningham, economics professor]
]Virginia Postrel, In Praise of Chain Stores
]Jonah Goldberg, Global Cooling Is Too Expensive
Marge Piercy, To Be of Use
] new to this edition