Reading Our Histories, Understanding Our Cultures A Sequenced Approach to Thinking, Reading, and Writing

by McCormick, Kathleen

• ISBN13: 9780321123695
• ISBN10: 0321123697
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-09-27
• Publisher: Pearson

Summary

Reading Our Histories, Understanding Our Culturesis an innovative cultural studies reader based on the assumption that the life of every person is intimately connected to the life of the culture. By translating the best of current work in cultural studies and process approaches to writing into practical sequenced assignments, it motivates students to develop essential critical thinking, reading, and writing skills. Students are asked to engage in two complementary forms of inquiry consistently throughout the book: "historical analysis," in which they analyze change and continuity over time; and "cultural analysis," in which they explore how and why different perspectives can exist within the same time period. This kind of inquiry is meant to engage students'personal interest and, in the process, to reconceptualize what is thought of as "the personal" within larger social contexts. It enables students to move from writing just "opinion" to writing analytically and persuasively about their own perspectives and those of others. Reading Our Histories, Understanding Our Culturesteaches students to trace how a particular issue is woven into the larger cultural and social fabric, and to negotiate among different perspectives from the past and present to develop a position of their own. This kind of work is where genuine critical inquiry begins.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	xi
Preface	xiii
Acknowledgments	xxv
Contributors	xxvii
Introduction	1	(1)
Kathleen McCormick
Entering the Intellectual Worlds of College	1	(1)
Accessing Critical Skills You Already Possess	1	(2)
A Method for Reading, Writing, and Thinking Critically	3	(4)
A Sequenced Process for Writing	7	(1)
A Range of Interesting Topics and Texts	8	(5)
Part I I and Ideology
Locating Ourselves in History and Culture	13	(61)
Kathleen McCormick
Charles Lipka
Assignment Sequence	13	(2)
Assignment 1: Personal Conflict Narrative	15	(2)
Reading the Conflicts of Others	17	(23)
Hating Goldie	19	(2)
Phyllis Rose
Hair	21	(3)
Malcolm X
Uncle Chul Gets Rich	24	(5)
Chang-Rae Lee
Hot Dog	29	(11)
Mary Gordon
Beginning Writing	40	(2)
Writing a First Draft	42	(2)
Sample Student Assignment 1	44	(5)
The Limits of a First Draft and the Promise of Future Drafts	49	(1)
Assignment 2: Analysis of Perspectives at the Time of the Conflict	49	(4)
Sample Student Assignment 2	53	(5)
Assignment 3: Analysis of Change in Your Perspective over Time	58	(3)
Sample Student Assignment 3	61	(2)
Assignment 4 (Optional): Analysis in Relation to Other Students	63	(1)
Sample Student Assignment 4	64	(1)
Assignment 5: Final Paper	65	(1)
Putting It All Together	66	(7)
Conclusion	73	(1)
Fashion: Selves and Surfaces	74	(65)
Sherry Horton
Kathleen McCormick
Introduction: Retaining Your Personal Voice with More Public Subjects	75	(1)
Reading the Signs around Us: Why Begin with Fashion?	76	(1)
What Is Fashion?	77	(2)
Locating Fashion in Larger Historical and Cultural Contexts	79	(5)
Active Reading Strategies	84	(47)
The Great Masculine Renunciation	88	(10)
J. C. Flugel
Amazing Reactions to Women in Bloomers	98	(10)
Ida Husted Harper
Female Attire: An Exchange with the Seneca County Courier	108	(2)
Amelia Bloomer
I'm Thin Therefore I Am	110	(9)
Nicci Gerrard
Pushing Borderlines: Gender Crossover	119	(6)
Marjorie Garber
A WASP in Jew's Clothing	125	(3)
Esther Newton
Common Threads	128	(3)
Michiko Kakutani
Assignment Sequences	131	(4)
For Further Research	135	(4)
Part II Absorbing Stories, Creating Identities
Family Portraits: Changing Roles	139	(85)
Donald Jones
Kerry Beckford
Introduction: Spying a Family	140	(79)
The Nineteenth-Century Retreat: Family and Home	144	(11)
Tamara K. Hareven
Conquering Themselves So Beautifully	155	(9)
Louisa May Alcott
Families Enslaved	164	(6)
Frederick Douglass
The Revolt of ``Mother''	170	(14)
Mary Wilkins Freeman
Restoring Basic Values	184	(7)
Dan Quayle
Beyond the Cult of Fatherhood	191	(9)
David Osborne
The Gay Family	200	(11)
Richard Goldstein
The Future Is Now: Twenty-first Century Family Forms	211	(8)
David H. Demo
Assignment Sequences	219	(2)
For Further Research	221	(3)
Beauty and the Beast: The Tales within Us	224	(72)
Leta Marks
Introduction: Why Study a Fairy Tale?	225	(65)
Cupid and Psyche	228	(9)
Lucius Apuleius
The Lady and the Lion	237	(7)
Jacob
Wilhelm Grimm
Beauty and the Beast	244	(12)
Madame Le Prince De Beaumont
Resolution and Restoration in Beauty and the Beast	256	(5)
Bruno Bettelheim
Beauty and the Beast: A Lesson in Submission	261	(10)
Jack Zipes
Go! Be a Beast	271	(7)
Marina Warner
The Tiger's Bride	278	(12)
Angela Carter
Assignment Sequences	290	(4)
For Further Research	294	(2)
Questioning U.S. High Schools: What to Teach and How to Learn	296	(69)
Sherry Horton
Donald Jones
Introduction: Why Are High Schools the Way They Are?	297	(62)
What High School Can Be	300	(7)
Theodore R. Sizer
In the Beginning: The 1893 Report of the Committee of Ten	307	(10)
Charles Eliot
Between Traditional and Progressive Education	317	(7)
John Dewey
Creating the Comprehensive High School	324	(8)
James B. Conant
Savage Inequalities	332	(9)
Jonathan Kozol
Missing in Interaction	341	(10)
Myra Sadker
David Sadker
Pasadena: Revised Images of Excellence	351	(8)
Mike Rose
Assignment Sequences	359	(3)
For Further Research	362	(3)
Elvis Presley: Any Way You Want Me (That's How I Will Be)	365	(70)
Alan G. Schmidt
Introduction: Man or Myth?	366	(58)
Baby Boom Che	368	(5)
John Trudell
TV: New Phenomenon	373	(3)
Jack Gould
Situation Report: Elvis in Memphis, 1967	376	(10)
Stanley Booth
Fanfare	386	(9)
Greil Marcus
A Lonely Life Ends on Elvis Presley Boulevard	395	(8)
Clark Porteous
Elvis, or the Ironies of a Southern Identity	403	(9)
Linda Ray Pratt
Among the Believers	412	(12)
Ron Rosenbaum
Assignment Sequences	424	(5)
For Further Research	429	(6)
Part III Contesting People, Contested Spaces
The American City: Dreams and Nightmares	435	(71)
Sally Terrell
Cynthia Reik
Introduction: City Visions	436	(65)
The Crime of the Cities	441	(10)
Winifred Gallagher
The Settlement House Concept and Individual Commitment	451	(6)
Jane Addams
In Defense of the City: Observing Urban Progress	457	(5)
F. K. Kingsbury
The National Government Takes a Stand on America's Cities	462	(6)
Urbanism Committee
Gi'Me a Penny	468	(10)
Maya Angelou
The City Eclipsed: Urban America and the Metropolitan Age	478	(10)
Howard P. Chudacoff
Judith E. Smith
Why We Need Cities	488	(10)
Jonathan Franzen
Waiting	498	(3)
Cornel West
Assignment Sequences	501	(3)
For Further Research	504	(2)
Galileo to Gates: Human Reactions to Science and Technology	506	(64)
Edward Klonoski
Beth Richards
Patricia Tempel
Introduction: Living with Our Tools	507	(58)
The Trial of Galileo	512	(13)
Jerome J. Langford
Galileo Reconsidered	525	(5)
James B. Reston Jr.
On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection	530	(5)
Charles Darwin
Origin of the Specious: Why Do Neoconservatives Doubt Darwin?	535	(9)
Ronald Bailey
The Cyber Future	544	(11)
Edward Cornish
Nanotechnology: Reinventing Our Cells	555	(10)
Ray Kurzweil
Assignment Sequences	565	(3)
For Further Research	568	(2)
Progress or Destruction? Developing the Environment	570	(65)
Sushil K. Oswal
Introduction: Analyzing Our Relationships to the Land	571	(57)
Surveying the Virgin Land: The Documents of Exploration and Colonizations, 1500--1740	573	(4)
Annette Kolodny
Westward the Monarch Capitol Makes Its Way	577	(2)
John Carbutt
Across the Continent---Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way	579	(1)
Nathaniel Currier
James Merritt Ives
Pioneer Ideals and the State University	580	(5)
Frederick Jackson Turner
From The Education of Henry Adams	585	(5)
Henry Adams
Wilderness Reserves: Yellowstone Park	590	(5)
Theodore Roosevelt
The Limits to Growth	595	(5)
Donella Meadows
Access to Public Lands: A National Necessity	600	(6)
Cynthia Riggs
The Conundrum of Consumption	606	(8)
Alan Thein Durning
Environmentalism of the Spirit	614	(8)
Al Gore
Business and the Environment: Towards a Paradigm Shift?	622	(6)
Denis Smith
Assignment Sequences	628	(3)
For Further Research	631	(4)
Glossary	635	(4)
Credits	639	(4)
Index	643