About the Book
More than 160 readings in Conversations, Fourth Edition, present an extraordinary variety of authors, genres, voices, and viewpoints on important contemporary civic issues. The diversity of opinions expressed and the currentness of issues explored encourage students to “join the conversation” — through their own writing. For each issue addressed, Conversations offers not just one or two selections, but several. Frequently, selections comment on other selections, demonstrating that writing is a social exchange, and that much writing is a response to other writing.
Table of Contents:
* Denotes selections new to this edition.
1.Education.
Introduction.
What to Do about the Schools?
E.B. White, Education.
* Bruce Goldberg, A Liberal Argument for School Choice.
David Kirp, What School Choice Really Means.
* Susan Tarves, Another Kind of School Choice.
Jonathan Kozol, A Tale of Two Schools: How Poor Children Are Lost to the World.
Theodore Sizer, Horace's Compromise.
David P. Gardner et al., A Nation at Risk.
Charles Dickens, What Is a Horse?
Jerome Stern, What They Learn in School.
What's College For?
Alice Walker, Everyday Use.
Bell Hooks, Pedagogy and Political Commitment: A Comment.
Adrienne Rich, Claiming an Education.
Gary B. Trudeau, Doonesbury.
* Ads for Hofstra University and Yeshiva University.
W.D. Snodgrass, The Examination.
* John Searle, The Case for a Traditional Liberal Arts Education.
* Literacy Narratives: How Did You Become Literate?
* Benjamin Franklin, from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.
* Frederick Douglass, from The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.
* Julia Alvarez, My English.
* Clint Swinson, Grandma.
* Min-Zhan Lu, From Silence to Words: Writing as Struggle.
* Chi-Fan Jennifer Ku, An Internal Divide.
2.Language.
Introduction.
Should We Have a National Language?
Richard Rodriguez, Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood.
Victor Villanueva, Jr., Whose Voice Is It? Rodriguez' Speech in Retrospect.
* Ron Unz and Gloria Matta Tuchman, The English Education for Children Initiative.
* American Civil Liberties Union, Briefing Paper on `English Only'.
Should There Be — Or Can There Be — A “Standard” English?
Barbara Mellix, From Outside, In.
Rachel L. Jones, What's Wrong with Black English.
Geneva Smitherman, White English in Blackface, or Who Do I Be?
John Simon, Why Good English Is Good for You.
* On Ebonics: A Discussion of Black English.
Bell Hooks, Teaching New Worlds/New Words.
Gary Larson, The Far Side.
Is English Sexist?
Beverly Gross, Bitch.
Lewis Grizzard, Women Will Be Womyn.
New Yorker, You'll Just Love the Way He Handles.
Deborah Tannen, CrossTalk.
3.Race and Gender.
Introduction.
Defining Race.
Sharon Begley, Three Is Not Enough.
* Karla Brundage, Passing.
* Linda Hogan, The History of Red and Heritage.
* Demian Hess, But You Don't Look Chinese.
* Ranier Spencer, Race and Mixed Race: A Personal Tour.
* David Roediger, White Looks: Hairy Apes, True Stories, and Limbaugh's Laughs.
Defining Gender.
Letters from and between John Adams and Abigail Adams.
Sojourner Truth, Ain't I a Woman?
Susan Glaspell, Trifles.
Diane Wakoski, Belly Dancer.
Jamaica Kincaid, Girl.
Judy Syfers Brady, Why I Want a Wife.
Kurt Fernsler, Why I Want a Husband.
Andrew Kimbrell, A Time for Men to Pull Together.
Ursula K. Le Guin, Limberlost.
Affirmative Action.
Shelby Steele, A Negative Vote on Affirmative Action.
Roger Wilkins, Racism Has Its Privileges: The Case for Affirmative Action.
Migdia Chinea-Varela, My Life As a Twofer.
Richard Kahlenberg, Class, Not Race.
Ellen Willis, Race, Class, and the State.
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Harrison Bergeron.
* Tom Toles, Cut the Gordian Knot.
Sexual Harassment.
Kati Marton, An All Too Common Story.
Frederic Hayward, Sexual Harassment — From a Man's Perspective.
* Phyllis Doloff, Today's Woman: Victim or Opportunist?
* Responses to Phyllis Doloff.
4. Family Matters.
Introduction.
Can the Family Be Saved?
Roger Rosenblatt, The Society That Pretends to Love Children.
Joseph Shapiro and Joanne Schrof, Honor Thy Children.
Shere Hite, Bringing Democracy Home.
* Stephanie Coontz, How Ignoring Historical and Societal Change Can Put Kids at Risk.
Is Single Parenthood a Problem?
Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, Dan Quayle Was Right.
Ellen Willis, Why I'm Not “Pro-Family.”
Iris Marion Young, Making Single Motherhood Normal.
Jean Bethke Elshtain, Single Motherhood: A Response to Iris Young.
Margaret O'Brien Steinfels, Rights and Responsibilities: A Response to Iris Young.
Iris Marion Young, Response to Elshtain and Steinfels.
Should Same-Sex Couples Be Permitted to Marry?
* Evan Wolfson, Why We Should Fight for the Freedom to Marry.
* Victoria Brownworth, Tying the Hangman's Noose: The Case against Same-Sex Marriage.
Anna Quindlen, Evan's Two Moms.
Barbara Findlen, Is Marriage the Answer?
5. Civil Liberties and Civil Rights.
Introduction.
Censorship I: Pornography.
President's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, Majority Report.
President's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, Minority Report.
Susan Brownmiller, Let's Put Pornography Back in the Closet.
John Irving, Pornography and the New Puritans.
Andrea Dworkin, Reply to John Irving.
Nadine Strossen, The Perils of Pornophobia.
Maria Soto, Is It Pornography?
Censorship II: Should Electronic Networks Be Restricted?
Philip Elmer-Dewitt, Cyberporn.
The Aftermath of “Cyberporn”: Responses on the Internet.
On Civil Disobedience.
Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience.
Mahatma Gandhi, Letter to Lord Irwin.
Martin Luther King, Jr., Love, Law, and Civil Disobedience.
Public Statement by Eight Alabama Clergymen.
Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail.
Lewis H. Van Dusen, Jr., Civil Disobedience: Destroyer of Democracy.
Should Abortion Be Legal?
Gwendolyn Brooks, The Mother.
Sallie Tisdale, We Do Abortions Here.
Mary Meehan, A Pro-Life View from the Left.
Sally Quinn, Our Choices, Ourselves.
Mike Royko, A Pox on Both Your Houses.
* Jim McCloskey and Mike Luckovich, Cartoons.
Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Rights.
Michael Cunningham, Taking the Census of Queer Nation.
Bruce Bawer, Notes on Stonewall.
John Berresford, Rights and Responsibilities, Not Freebies and Frolics.
Yale Kamisar, Drugs, AIDS and the Threat to Privacy.
Dan Chaon, Transformations.
6. Crime and Punishment.
Introduction.
Should Guns Be Regulated?
Leonard Kriegel, A Loaded Question: What Is It about Americans and Guns?
Roy Innis, Gun Control Sprouts from Racist Soil.
Elizabeth Swazey, Women and Handguns.
National Rifle Association, Don't Edit the Bill of Rights.
Paul Lawton, Constitutional Law and the Second Amendment.
Robert Goldwin, Gun Control Is Constitutional.
Responses to Robert Goldwin.
Daniel Polsby, The False Promise of Gun Control.
What Causes Crime?
Clarence Darrow, Address to the Prisoners in Cook County Jail.
Richard J. Herrnstein and James Q. Wilson, Are Criminals Made or Born?
Dorothy Nelkin and Susan Lindee, Elvis' DNA: The Gene As a Cultural Icon.
Alison Bass, Why Aren't There More Women Murderers?
* Earl Ofari Hutchinson, The Criminalization of Black Men.
Capital Punishment.
George Orwell, A Hanging.
Edward I. Koch, Death and Justice.
Jacob Weisberg, This Is Your Death.
Doug Marlette, Cartoon.
Should Drugs Be Legalized?
Kurt Schmoke, A War for the Surgeon General, Not the Attorney General.
William Bennett, Should Drugs Be Legalized?
Milton Friedman, Prohibition and Drugs.
Milton Friedman, An Open Letter to Bill Bennett.
William Bennett, A Response to Milton Friedman.
Milton Friedman, A Response to William Bennett.
7. Science and Society.
Introduction.
* Should Research on Cloning Be Permitted?
* Virginia Morell, A Clone of One's Own.
* Charles Krauthammer, Of (Headless) Mice and Men.
* Virginia Postrel, Fatalist Attraction.
* John Kilner, Stop Cloning Around.
* Ronald Lindsay, Taboos without a Clue.
How Should We Fight AIDS?
Hanna Rosin, The Homecoming.
Ann Louise Bardach, The White Cloud.
AIDS Prevention Posters.
* Jesse Green, Flirting with Suicide.
Euthanasia.
Anonymous, It's Over, Debbie.
Charles Colson, It's Not Over, Debbie.
James Rachels, Active and Passive Euthanasia.
Sidney Hook, In Defense of Voluntary Euthanasia.
Leon R. Kass, Why Doctors Must Not Kill.
Elizabeth Martinez, Is Rightful Death a Feminist Issue?
What Do You Make of the Internet?
John Perry Barlow, Is There a There in Cyberspace?
M. Kadi, Welcome to Cyberia.
Howard Rheingold, The Virtual Community.
* Stephen Doheny-Farina, Immersive Virtualists and Wired Communitarians.
* David Horsey, Broken Promises of the Computer Age.
Susan Herring, Gender Differences on the Internet: Bringing Familiar Baggage to the New Frontier.
Author/Title Index.
