American Identities : An Introductory Textbook

by Rudnick, Lois P.; Smith, Judith E.; Rubin, Rachel Lee

• ISBN13: 9780631234326
• ISBN10: 0631234322
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-10-07
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

American Identities is a dazzling array of primary documents and critical essays culled from American history, literature, memoir, and popular culture that explore major currents and trends in American history from World War II to the present. The textbook charts the rich multiplicity of American identities as refracted through the different lenses of race, class, and gender, and shaped by common historical social processes such as migration, families, work, and war. Rather than simply teaching history, American Identities actively engages students in the history-making process while developing the skills crucial to interpreting meaningful and enduring cultural texts. Substantial editorial matter and the accompanying instructorrs"s guide provide resources for classroom use and for student projects, including: bull; bull;Headnotes and study guide questions for each reading bull;Exercises for individual and group reading and viewing bull;Timelines bull;Interview questions bull;Bibliographies to guide students into becoming readers of American culture and historians of their families.

Author Biography

Lois P. Rudnick is Professor of English and American Studies and Director of the American Studies Program at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Judith E. Smith is Professor of American Studies and Director, Graduate Program in American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Rachel Lee Rubin is Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Table of Contents

Alternative Contents by Genre	x
Preface: How to Use This Book	xiii
Acknowledgments	xiv
Introduction	1	(5)
PART I IDENTITY, FAMILY, AND MEMORY	6	(40)
Understanding Identity
Identities and Social Locations: Who Am I? Who Are My People?	8	(9)
Gwyn Kirk
Margo Okazawa-Rey
American Families in Historical Perspective
What We Really Miss About the 1950s	17	(12)
Stephanie Coontz
Memory and Community
Generational Memory in an American Town	29	(10)
John Bodnar
Growing Up Asian in America	39	(7)
Kesaya E. Noda
PART II WORLD WAR II AND THE POSTWAR ERA 1940--1960	46	(194)
World War II and American Families
War Babies	48	(8)
Maria Fleming Tymoczko
From Citizen 13660	56	(9)
Mine Okubo
The Cold War and Domestic Politics
Containment at Home: Cold War, Warm Hearth	65	(6)
Elaine Tyler May
The Problem That Has No Name	71	(7)
Betty Friedan
The Civil Rights Revolution, 1945--1960	78	(6)
William H. Chafe
From Like One of the Family: Conversations from a Domestic's Life	84	(6)
Alice Childress
Family Migrations, Urban and Suburban
Songs of the Chicago Blues	90	(3)
Halfway to Dick and Jane: A Puerto Rican Pilgrimage	93	(10)
Jack Agueros
From Goodbye, Columbus	103	(11)
Philip Roth
PART III WAR AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS, 1960--1975
The Civil Rights Movement
Letter from Birmingham City Jail	114	(5)
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Message to the Grass Roots	119	(7)
Malcolm X
Songs of the Civil Rights Movement	126	(4)
Student Activism
Port Huron Statement	130	(4)
The Port Huron Statement at 40	134	(4)
Tom Hayden
Richard Flacks
The Vietnam War
From Working-Class War: American Combat Soldiers and Vietnam	138	(5)
Christian G. Appy
From Born on the Fourth of July	143	(7)
Ron Kovic
From Bloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Black Veterans	150	(8)
Richard J. Ford III
Black and Puerto Rican Power
Black Power: Its Need and Substance	158	(8)
Stokely Carmichael
Charles V. Hamilton
``Respect''	166	(2)
Aretha Franklin
``Say It Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud)''	168	(2)
James Brown
13-Point Program and Platform	170	(4)
Women's Lives, Women's Rights
Sources of the Second Wave: The Rebirth of Feminism	174	(11)
Sara M. Evans
NOW Bill of Rights	185	(2)
The Liberation of Black Women	187	(5)
Pauli Murray
Jessie Lopez De La Cruz: The Battle for Farmworkers' Rights	192	(11)
Ellen Cantarow
The American Indian Movement
This Country Was a Lot Better Off When the Indians Were Running It	203	(9)
Vine Deloria, Jr.
The Occupation of Alcatraz Island	208	(4)
The Gay Liberation Movement
Gay Liberation	212	(6)
John D'Emilio
Estelle B. Freedman
The Fighting Irishman	218	(8)
A. Damien Martin
The Drag Queen	226	(7)
Rey ``Sylvia Lee'' Rivera
The New American Right
From Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right	233	(7)
Lisa McGirr
PART IV A POSTINDUSTRIAL AND GLOBAL SOCIETY, 1975--2000	240	(86)
Deindustrializing America
From The Great U-Turn: Corporate Restructuring and the Polarizing of America	242	(7)
Bennett Harrison
Barry Bluestone
From ``It Ain't No Sin To Be Glad You're Alive'': The Promise of Bruce Springsteen	249	(5)
Eric Alterman
A Musical Representation of Work of Postindustrial America	254	(10)
Class in America: Myths and Realities (2000)	264	(8)
Gregory Mantsios
Marriage and Family: Modern and Postmodern
From Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood	272	(9)
Kristin Luker
The Making and Unmaking of Modern Families	281	(9)
Judith Stacey
Multicultural America
From Jasmine	290	(10)
Bharati Mukherjee
Growing Up Biracial and Bicultural	300	(5)
Claudine Chiawei O'Hearn
From The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems	305	(4)
Sherman Alexie
The United States as Borderlands
Through a Glass Darkly: Toward the Twenty-first Century	309	(7)
Ronald Takaki
``To live in the Borderlands means you''	316	(2)
Gloria Anzaldua
From No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies	318	(8)
Naomi Klein
PART V THE FUTURE OF US ALL?	326	(33)
Brave New World: Gray Boys, Funky Aztecs, and Honorary Homegirls	328	(7)
Lynell George
From The Future of Us All	335	(13)
Roger Sanjek
The Society That Unions Can Build	348	(11)
David Reynolds
Text and Illustration Credits	359	(5)
Index	364