Fifty-six substantial readings from important thinkers explore eight great ideas. Writers such as Lao-tzu, Karl Marx, Frederick Douglass, and Mary Wollstonecraft examine democracy, government, ethics and morality, wealth and poverty, education, gender and culture, language, and discoveries of the mind. Part introductions ground students in the history of each idea and connect the philosophies of the individual writers.
Detailed editorial apparatus helps students handle the challenging material. Part introductions, introductory quotations, useful glosses, pre-reading questions, abundant discussion and connections questions, and writing prompts help students focus their reading and hone their understanding of the texts.
"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 Government features Eugene Delacroix painting Liberty Leading the People along with a discussion of the workrepresentation of people rising together against tyranny. The "Seeing Connections" questions that follow each of the readings ask students to relate a given text back to the work of art.
Comprehensive Instructor's Manual provides support for your teaching. This exceptionally thorough resource includes sentence outlines for every selection, further background on the selections, suggestions for classroom discussion and student writing assignments, brief bibliographies for every author, and sample syllabi.