Rereading America Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing

Rereading Americaremains the most widely adopted book of its kind because of its unique approach to the issue of cultural diversity. Unlike other multicultural composition readers that settle for representing the plurality of American voices and cultures, Rereading Americaencourages students to grapple with the real differences in perspectives that arise in our complex society. With extensive editorial apparatus that puts readings from the mainstream into conversation with readings from the margins, Rereading Americaprovokes students to explore the foundations and contradictions of our dominant cultural myths. The print text is now integrated with e-Pages for Readings for Rereading America,designed to take advantage of what the Web can do.

Gary Colombo is professor of English at Los Angeles City College. He has published Mind Readings: An Anthology for Writers (2002), and with Bonnie Lisle and Sandra Mano, Frame Work: Culture, Storytelling and College Writing (1997), both for Bedford/St. Martins. Robert Cullen is professor of English at San Jose State University. He supervises Teaching Associates in the university’s lower-division writing sequence and has taught a wide range of courses in American literature, American Studies, composition, and pedagogy. Bonnie Lisle teaches in the UCLA Writing Programs. With Gary Colombo and Sandra Mano, she is the author of Frame Work: Culture, Storytelling, and College Writing (Bedford/St. Martins, 1997).

Chapter 1: Harmony at Home: The Myth of the Model Family

Gary Soto, Looking for Work

Stephanie Coontz, What We Really Miss About the 1950s

Melvin Dixon, Aunt Ida Pieces a Quilt

Naomi Gerstel and Natalia Sarkisian, The Color of Family Ties: Race, Class, Gender, and Extended Family Involvement

Visual Portfolio: Reading Images of American Families

Proposition 8: The California Marriage Protection Act

Marriage Equality USA, Prop 8 Hurt My Family—Ask Me How

Theodore B. Olson, The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage 

*Katherine S. Newman, The Accordion Family: Boomerang Kids, Anxious Parents, and the Private Toll of Global Competition [Media Selection]

*Alex Williams, Quality Time, Redefined

e-Pages Roger Jack, An Indian Story

e-Pages Susan Saulny, Shayla Harris, and Matthew Orr, Just A Family [video]

Chapter 2: Learning Power: The Myth of Education and Empowerment

Horace Mann, From Report of the Massachusetts Board of Education, 1848

Michael Moore, Idiot Nation

John Taylor Gatto, Against School

Mike Rose, "I Just Wanna Be Average"

Jean Anyon, From Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work

Visual Portfolio: Reading Images of Education and Empowerment

Malcolm X, Learning to Read

Ines Hernandez-Avila, Para Teresa

Jonathan Kozol, Still Separate, Still Unequal

*Andrew Delbanco, College at Risk

*UCLA Center for Labor Studies, Underground Grads

e-Pages Richard Rodriguez, The Achievement of Desire

e-Pages Adam B. Ellick, The Commercial Campus [video]

Chapter 3: Money and Success: The Myth of Individual Opportunity

Horatio Alger, from Ragged Dick

Toni Cade Bambara, The Lesson

Harlon L. Dalton, Horatio Alger

Barbara Ehrenreich, Serving in Florida

Gregory Mantsios, Class in America — 2009

*Don Peck, Generation R: The Changing Fortunes of America’s Youth

Visual Portfolio: Reading Images of Individual Opportunity

Diana Kendall, Framing Class, Vicarious Living, and Conspicuous Consumption [Media Selection]

*Adam Davidson, Making It in America

Kathleen R. Arnold, From America's New Working Class

*Charles Murray, The New American Divide

*Timothy Noah, From The Great Divergence

e-Pages Studs Terkel, Stephen Cruz 

e-Pages Tim Kasser, The High Price of Materialism [video]

Chapter 4: True Women and Real Men: Myths of Gender

Alexis de Tocqueville, How the Americans Understand the Equality of the Sexes

Jamaica Kincaid, Girl

Aaron H. Devor, Becoming Members of Society:  Learning the Social Meanings of Gender

*Kay Givens McGowan, Weeping for the Lost Matriarchy

Visual Portfolio: Reading Images of Gender

Jean Kilbourne, "Two Ways a Woman Can Get HurtÓ:  Advertising and Violence [Media Selection]

*Peggy Orenstein, Just Between You, Me, and My 622 BFF's 

Joan Morgan, From Fly Girls to Bitches and Hos

Michael Kimmel, "Bros Before Hos":  The Guy Code

*Hanna Rosin, The End of Men 

e-Pages Jesse Green, S/He

e-Pages Megan Chiplock, Speaking Out: Kevin Downs [video]

Chapter 5: Created Equal: The Myth of the Melting Pot 

Thomas Jefferson, From Notes on the State of Virginia

Vincent N. Parrillo, Causes of Prejudice

Cheryl I. Harris and Devon W. Carbado, Loot or Find:  Fact or Frame? [Media Selection]

*Erin Aubry Kaplan, Barack Obama

*Jo Yin C Shih, Chyna and Me

Visual Portfolio: Reading Images of The Melting Pot 

George M. Fredrickson, Models of American Ethnic Relations:  A Historical Perspective

*David Treuer, Rez Life

Patrick J. Buchanan, Deconstructing America

Ruben Martinez, the Crossing

e-Pages Maysan Haydar, Veiled Intentions: Don’t Judge a Muslim Girl by her Covering

e-Pages Todd County High School Students, We’re More Than That [video]

Chapter 6: Land of Liberty: American Myths of Freedom

*The Declaration of Independence

*Preamble to the Constitution

*James Madison, The Bill of Rights

*Naomi Wolf, Freedom Is Intended as a Challenge

*Anne Applebaum, The Decline of American Press Freedom

*Juan Williams, Defying the PC Police

*Katherine Mangu-Ward, The War on Negative Liberty

*Martha C. Nussbaum, Whether from Reason or Prejudice: Taking Money for Bodily Services

*Susan N. Herman, from Taking Liberties: The War on Terror and the Erosion of American Democracy

Visual Portfolio: Reading Images of Freedom

*Lori Andrews, George Orwell—meet Mark Zuckerberg [Media Selection]

*Kevin Bales and Ron Soodalter, Slavery in the Land of the Free

*Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow

*Eric Liu and Nick Hannauer, Great Citizenship

e-Pages Chris Norwood, The Rise of Mass Dependency

e-Pages Tiffany Shlain, A Declaration of Interdependence: A Crowdsourced Short Film [video]

*New to this edition