The Oxford Reader

The Oxford Reader offers a renewed emphasis on more traditional forms of literacy--sustained reading, writing, and thinking--which comes at a particularly urgent moment. In a world of alternative facts and fake news, the importance of a well and deeply educated citizenry is reinvigorated. Even within the multimodal classroom, many instructors have continued to introduce (or reintroduce) the modes to employ readings that direct students to read carefully, to respond and argue cogently and accountably, and to become nimble and ready writers, no matter what they're writing. The Oxford Reader distinguishes itself by offering not only an expected mix of classic and contemporary selections, but also a variety of genres to emphasize nonfiction, without excluding some literary works and prominent pieces from blogs and other online sources. This spectrum of voices, genres, and time periods illustrate that what is considered contemporary thinking often has its roots elsewhere.

Deborah H. Holdstein is Professor of English at Columbia College Chicago.

Danielle Aquiline is Professor of English at Oakton Community College.

CHRONOLOGICAL CONTENTS
Preface
Introduction

The Allegory of the Cave
Plato
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

A Modest Proposal (1729)
Jonathan Swift
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

The Cask of Amontillado (1846)
Edgar Allan Poe
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing
WHAT'S NEW IS OLD

What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? (1852)
Frederick Douglass
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

Address to the Legislature of New York (1854)
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

Life Without Principle (1863)
Henry David Thoreau
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

Advice to Youth (1882)
Mark Twain
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

The Necklace (1884)
Guy de Maupassant
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

Shooting an Elephant (1936)
George Orwell
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing
WHAT'S NEW IS OLD

The Lottery (1948)
Shirley Jackson
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

Notes of a Native Son (1955)
James Baldwin
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing
WHAT'S NEW IS OLD

Excerpts from 'Letter from a Birmingham Jail' (1963)
Martin Luther King, Jr.
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

The Ballot or the Bullet (1964)
Malcolm X
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing
WHAT'S NEW IS OLD

Trip to Hanoi (1968)
Susan Sontag
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing
WHAT'S NEW IS OLD

Speech on Impeachment (We the People) (1974)
Barbara Jordan
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

Why I Write (1976)
Joan Didion
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

Split at the Root (1982)
Adrienne Rich
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders His Ability to Alter Public Space (1986)
Brent Staples
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

Am I Blue? (1986)
Alice Walker
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

How to Tame a Wild Tongue, an Excerpt (1987)
Gloria Anzaldúa
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

The Management of Grief (1988)
Bharati Mukherjee
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

Sh**** First Drafts (1994)
Anne Lamott
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

The Secret Life of the Love Song (1999)
Nick Cave
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

The Waiter's Wife (1999)
Zadie Smith
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

The Perils of Indifference (1999)
Elie Wiesel
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

Fast Food Nation, an Excerpt (2000)
Eric Schlosser
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

Why We Travel (2000)
Pico Iyer
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

The Youth in Asia (2000)
David Sedaris
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing
WHAT'S NEW IS OLD

Shooting Dad (2000)
Sarah Vowell
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

Consider the Lobster (2004)
David Foster Wallace
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

1918 Influenza: The Mother of All Pandemics (2006)
Jeffrey K. Taubenberger and David M. Morens
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing
WHAT'S NEW IS OLD

Is Google Making Us Stupid? (2008)
Nicholas Carr
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

The Matthew Effect (2008)
Malcolm Gladwell
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

Go Gentle Into That Good Night (2009)
Roger Ebert
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

Assassins of the Mind (2009)
Christopher Hitchens
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

Reprieve (2009)
Tim Kreider
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

A Tale of Three Coming Out Stories (2012)
Roxane Gay
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

My President Was Black (2017)
Ta-Nehisi Coates
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

Going It Alone (2017)
Rahawa Haile
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

To Be, or Not to Be (2018)
Masha Gessen
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing
WHAT'S NEW IS OLD

You Owe Me an Apology (2018)
Brittany Packnett Cunningham
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

Origin Story: Carrying Histories of Protest (2019)
Jaquira Díaz
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

The American Nightmare (2020)
Ibram X. Kendi
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing

Pandemics Leave Us Forever Altered (2020)
Charles C. Mann
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing
WHAT'S NEW IS OLD

Facebook Is a Doomsday Machine (2020)
Adrienne LaFrance
For Informal Writing
For Discussion
For Writing
WHAT'S NEW IS OLD