A World of Ideas

Eighteen new classic readings that challenge and reward students’ attention. The new edition adds landmark works from great thinkers of the past — including René Descartes, W.E.B. DuBois, Margaret Mead — and present — including Steven Pinker, Francis Fukuyama, and Germaine Greer, among others.

Two new foundational ideas for students to explore.

• The Individual. Writers ranging from Ralph Waldo Emerson to Erich Fromm contemplate the role of the individual within society.

• Gender and Culture. A variety of thinkers ranging from Claude Lévi-Strauss to Virginia Woolf explore the masculine and feminine within cultures.

New "Visualizing" feature encourages students to apply great ideas to great works of art. In each part, a major work of art is accompanied by an informative discussion that prepares students to make thoughtful connections between the work and the thinkers who follow. For instance, Visualizing Gender and Culture features Mary Cassatt’s painting In the Loge along with a discussion of the work’s exploration of gender roles. The "Seeing Connections" questions that follow each of the readings ask students to relate a given text back to the work of art.

More help for students to compare and debate ideas. More "Connections" questions throughout the book ask students to make connections and comparisons between writers and ideas. Increased coverage of the most common approaches to argument has been added to the back of the book. Additionally, many of the suggestions for critical reading and critical writing throughout the book highlight the basic elements of a writer’s argument and helps students make arguments of their own.