With nearly 100 readings and 24 pages of visual arguments, Conversations provides the reader with an entry point to an extraordinary variety of authors, genres, voices, and viewpoints on important contemporary civic issues.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: reading and Writing critically                             PART ONE: EDUCATION INTRODUCTION   1. The Goals of Public Education: No Child Left Behind?    E.B. White, EDUCATION (essay)   W. Norton Grubb, THE NEW VOCATIONALISM: WHAT IT IS, WHAT IT COULD BE (essay)    Larry Cuban, MAKING PUBLIC SCHOOLS BUSINESS-LIKE . . . AGAIN (essay)    Herb Childress, A SUBTRACTIVE EDUCATION (essay)   Margaret Spellings, REMARKS AT NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND SUMMIT, APRIL 2006 (speech)   Gerald W. Bracey, THE CONDITION OF PUBLIC EDUCATION (essay)   BLOG RESPONSES TO GERALD BRACEY’S “THINGS FALL APART: NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND SELF DESTRUCTS” (blog postings)   Veronica Garcia, et al., High School Students’ Perspectives on the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act’s Definition of a Highly Qualified Teacher (public letters)   Getting into the Conversation: The Goals of Public Education: No Child Left Behind?   Visual Conversations 1 The Place(s) of Education: Educational Settings                                                                                   2. What’s College For?    Alice Walker, EVERYDAY USE (fiction)     W. J. Reeves, COLLEGE ISN’T FOR EVERYONE (essay)    Garry B. Trudeau, DOONESBURY (cartoon)    Ellen Condliffe Lagemann, THE CHALLENGE OF LIBERTY (essay)    ADS FOR HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY AND YORK COLLEGE (advertisements)    Clive Crook, A MATTER OF DEGREES: WHY COLLEGE ISN’T AN ECONOMIC CURE ALL  (essay)   Marshall Poe, THE OTHER GENDER GAP (essay)   Getting into the Conversation: What’s College For?     Extending the Conversation 1: Education     PART TWO:  Media Matters   Introduction:           1.  What is the Role and Responsibility of Traditional Journalism in an Electronic Age?   Brian Richardson, THE PUBLIC’S RIGHT TO KNOW: A DANGEROUS NOTION(essay)   James Murphy, Stephen J. A. Ward, Aine Donovan, ETHICAL IDEALS IN JOURNALISM: CIVIC UPLIFT OR TELLING THE TRUTH?  (essay)   Maria Henson, EXPERIENCING THE MEANING OF JOURNALISM (essay)   Brent Cunningham, WORKING THE FRINGES (essay)   Ronnie Dugger, CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF THE MEDIA(essay)    Nick Gillespie, BIG MEDIA’S VALUE TO CONSUMERS: DEREGULATION LEADS TO A WIDER RANGE OF CHOICES FOR THE PUBLIC AT BETTER PRICES (essay)   PewResearch Center, BOTTOM-LINE PRESSURES NOW HURTING COVERAGE, SAY JOURNALISTS(demographic study)    Getting into the Conversation: What is the Role and Responsibility of Traditional Journalism in an Electronic Age?   2.   Web 2.0 as Interactive News: Citizen Journalism or Unbounded Misrepresentation?   Matt Welch, BLOGWORLD AND ITS GRAVITY (essay)    David Weinberger, BLOGS AND THE VALUES OF JOURNALISM (essay)   Rachel Smolkin, THE EXPANDING BLOGOSPHERE (essay)   Frank Partsch, UNBOUNDED MISREPRESENTATION (editorial)   Jeff Jarvis, RESPONSE TO FRANK PARTSCH (blog post)   Getting into the Conversation: Web 2.0 as Interactive News: Citizen Journalism or Unbounded Misrepresentation?   Visual Conversations 2 Virtual Communities, Real Politics in the New Media    3. Blurring the Line among News, Entertainment and Socializing: What is the Effect of Fake News, MySpace, and YouTube?     Geoffrey Baym, THE DAILY SHOW: DISCURSIVE INTEGRATION AND THE REINVENTION OF POLITICAL JOURNALISM (academic analysis)   Joe Saltzman, FOSTERING FAKE NEWS STORIES (essay)   Greg Gutfield, MAD ABOUT YOU (essay)   Moisés Naím, THE YOUTUBE EFFECT (essay)   DeWolfe, Chris, THE MYSPACE GENERATION (essay)   Alex Williams, THE FUTURE PRESIDENT, ON YOUR FRIENDS LIST (essay)   Getting into the Conversation: Blurring the Line Between News, Entertainment and Socializing: What is the Effect of Fake News, MySpace, and YouTube?   PART THREE:  IDENTITY ISSUES: GENDER, RACE, ETHNICITY    Introduction:    I. How Do We Define Gender and Race–and How Do They Define Us?    Sojourner Truth, AIN’T I A WOMAN (speech)  Scott Russell Sanders, THE MEN WE CARRY IN OUR MINDS (essay) Betsy Lucal, WHAT IT MEANS TO BE GENDERED ME: LIFE ON THE BOUNDARIES OF A DICHOTOMOUS GENDER SYSTEM (essay) Naomi Wolf, From THE BEAUTY MYTH: HOW IMAGES OF BEAUTY ARE USED AGAINST WOMEN (book excerpt)   Virginia Postrel, THE TRUTH ABOUT BEAUTY (essay)   Michael Kimmel, A WAR AGAINST BOYS? (essay)   Amitai Etzioni, LEAVING RACE BEHIND (essay)   Frank H. Yu, Yellow: THE MODEL MINORIY, from YELLOW: RACE IN AMERICAN BEYOND BLACK AND WHITE (book excerpt)   Getting into the Conversation: How Do We Define Gender, Race, and Ethnicity–and How Do They Define Us?    Visual Conversations 3 Images of Gender in the Arts      2. Language and Identity:  The F-Word, the H-Word, and Other Ways Language Defines Us     Rebecca Traister, THE F WORD(essay)   Beverly Gross, BITCH (essay)    Sherryl Kleinman, WHY SEXIST LANGUAGE MATTERS (essay)   Richard Rodriguez, HISPANIC (essay)   Emma Violand-Sánchez and Julia Hainer-Violand, The Power of Positive Identity (essay)     Getting into the Conversation: Language and Identity:  The F-Word, the H-Word and Other Ways Language Defines Us    Extending the Conversation: Identity Issues   PART FOUR:  REVOLUTIONS IN MARRIAGE AND FAMILY:   Introduction:   1. What is a Marriage?    Margaret Mead, CAN MARRIAGE BE FOR LIFE? (sociological study)   Stephanie Coontz, THE EVOLUTION OF MARRIAGE: THE CHANGING SOCIAL CONTEXT OF MARRIAGE (sociological study)   Jillian Straus, LONE STARS: BEING SINGLE (essay)   Steven L. Nock, THE PROBLEM WITH MARRIAGE (essay)   Jennifer Marshall, MARRIAGE: WHAT SOCIAL SCIENCE SAYS AND DOESN’T SAY (report)    Sherry Hite, BRINGING DEMOCRACY HOME (report)      Getting into the Conversation: What is a Marriage?    2. What is a Family?    Ellen Willis, WHY I’M NOT PRO-FAMILY (essay)    Linda HIrshman and Miriam Peskowitz, ARE WOMEN GIVING UP BY OPTING OUT? (dialogue)   Iris Marion Young, MAKING SINGLE MOTHERHOOD NORMAL (essay)   Jean Bethke Elshtain, SINGLE MOTHERHOOD:  A RESPONSE TO IRIS YOUNG (essay)   Margaret O’Brien Steinfels, RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBLITIES: A RESPONSE TO IRIS YOUNG (essay)   Iris Marion Young, RESPONSE TO ELSHTAIN AND STEINFELS (essay)     Getting into the Conversation: What is a Family?      3. Will America Accept Gay Marriages and Gay Families?     Rick Santorum, AMERICANS MUST PRESERVE INSTITUTION OF MARRIAGE (essay)    Adam Tenney, WHOSE FAMILY VALUES? (essay)   Ellen Goodman, SHOWING US THE POWER OF MARRIAGE (essay)   Barbara Findlen, IS MARRIAGE THE ANSWER? (essay)   Since when is marriage the path to liberation?  That’s the question that is being debated in the gay community.   Tom Toles, THE TROUBLE WITH GAYS (cartoon)   Victoria A. Brownworth, THE LIMITS OF FAMILY (essay)   Getting into the Conversation: Will America Accept Gay Marriages and Gay Families?   Visual Conversations 4 Gay Marriage Comes Out of the Closet and into the Public Eye      Extending the Conversation: Revolutions in Marriage and Family   PART FIVE: THE SCOPE OF GOVERNMENT: CIVIL RIGHTS AND/OR PROMOTING THE PUBLIC WELFARE   Introduction:   1. Equal Justice Under Law:  Has the Ideal of Equality Been Achieved?   PUBLIC STATEMENT BY EIGHT ALABAMA CLERGYMEN (public letter)   Martin Luther King, LETTER FROM A BIRMINGHAM JAIL (public letter/essay)   Ed Mead, REFLECTIONS ON CRIME AND CLASS (essay)   Christian Parenti, CRIME AS SOCIAL CONTROL (essay)   Randall Kennedy, POLICE AND THE PROBLEM OF “REASONABLE” RACIAL DISCRIMINATION, from RACE, CRIME, AND THE LAW  (book excerpt)   Heather McDonald, RACIAL PROFILING IN LAW ENFORCEMENT IS A MYTH (essay)   Michael Levin, THE POLICE ARE NOT RACIST (essay)   Jeffrey H. Reiman, from THE RICH GET RICHER AND THE POOR GET PRISON (sociological study)    Getting into the Conversation: Equal Justice Under Law:  Has the Ideal of Equality Been Achieved?   Visual Conversations 5 The Varied Faces of The Civil Rights Movement    2. Privacy, Surveillance, and Public Safety: How Much Does the Government Need to Know about Us?   U. S. Department of Justice, THE USA PATRIOT ACT: PRESERVING LIFE AND LIBERTY (government report)     American Civil Liberties Union, HOW THE ANTI-TERRORISM BILL CIRCUMVENTS PRIVACY PROTECTIONS (position statement)     American Library Association, RESOLUTION ON THE USA PATRIOT ACT AND RELATED MEASURES THAT INFRINGE ON THE RIGHTS OF LIBRARY USERS (public resolution)    Bill Nelson, THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY (essay)   John Poindexter, THE NEED FOR INFORMATION AWARENESS (essay)   Paul Starobin, DAWN OF THE DADDY STATE (essay)   Ray C. Spencer, CAN WE CURB THE PRIVACY INVADERS? (essay)   James Bamford, BIG BROTHER IS LISTENING (essay)   Getting into the Conversation: Privacy, Surveillance, and Public Safety: How Much Does the Government Need to Know about Us?   3. Who is Watching What We Eat?   Eric Schlosser, FAST FOOD NATION (essay)   Charles Stein, IN A SUPERSIZED WORLD, REGULATORY INDIGESTION (essay)   Ninos P. Malek, FAST FOOD AND PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY (essay)   Nick Gillespie, THE RACE TO BAN WHAT”S BAD FOR US (editorial)   CorbyKummer, FAT CITY (essay)   James Matorin, OBESITY AWARENESS CAMPAIGN NEEDED, BUT REGULATIONS WON’T CURB FAST FOOD (essay)   Getting into the Conversation: Who is Watching What We Eat?   Extending the Conversation:  The Scope of Government     PART SIX:  Global Climate Change:  Causes, Effects, Responses    Introduction:            1. Global Climate Change:  The Debate over What It Means   Al Gore, from AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH (book excerpt) Richard S. Lindzen, GLOBAL WARMING: THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF THE ALLEGED SCIENTIFIC CONSENSUS (essay)   Mahlman, J. D., UNCERTAINTIES IN PROJECTIONS OF HUMAN-CAUSED CLIMATE WARMING (scientific report)   William J. Kellog, RESPONSE TO SKEPTICS OF GLOBAL WARMING (essay)   Getting into the Conversation: Global Climate Change:  The Debate over What It Means     2. Global Warming: Is Business Going Green or Just Greenwashing?    Tom Price, CAN NEW BUSINESS POLICIES SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT? (report)   Mike Tierney, GREEN INDUSTRY ON THE RISE (report)   Margery Kraus and Michael Brune, ARE BUSINESSES BETTER EQUIIPPED THAN GOVERNMENT TO ADDRESS 21st CENTURY ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES (dialogue)    Marc Gunther, Doris Burke, Jia Lynn Yang, THE GREEN MACHINE (essay) Frank O'Donnell, GE's GREENWASHING (editorial)   David Blanchard, DADDY, WHY DOES YOUR COMPANY WANT TO HURT EVERYBODY (editorial)   Gregg Easterbrook, SOME CONVENIENT TRUTHS (essay)   Getting into the Conversation: Global Warming: Is Business Going Green or Just Greenwashing?      3. Environmental Activism: What Forms Does It Take, What  Limits Should it Have?   Ronald A Chadderton, SHOULD ENGINEERS COUNTERACT ENVIRONMENTAL EXTREMISM (essay)   Patrick Moore, HARD CHOICES FOR THE ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT (essay)     Nature Editorial, TO BUILD BRIDGES OR TO BURN THEM (editorial)   Emma Marris, IN THE NAME OF NATURE (essay)   Getting into the Conversation: Environmental Activism: What Forms Does It Take, What  Limits Should it Have?   Visual Conversations 6 Picturing Global Warming   Extending the Conversation:  Global Climate Change