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America Now
Short Readings from Recent PeriodicalsTwelfth Edition| ©2017 Robert Atwan
America Now makes it easy for you to bring brief, thought-provoking essays into your classroom, with reliable pedagogy and an expert reader's knowledge of what works for students.
As series editor for The Best American Essays, Robert Atwan constantly scours a wide ran...
America Now makes it easy for you to bring brief, thought-provoking essays into your classroom, with reliable pedagogy and an expert reader's knowledge of what works for students.
As series editor for The Best American Essays, Robert Atwan constantly scours a wide range of periodicals, bringing to America Now an unrivaled focus on today’s best writing. Instructors tell us that their students want to respond to the essays in the book, and they praise the high-quality reading and writing instruction, critical thinking and reading questions, and model student essays that help them do so.
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Every current, professional reading in America Now is new to this edition, making it truly a book for today's composition course.
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Very current, high interest readings curated by Robert Atwan
America Now makes it easy for you to bring brief, thought-provoking essays into your classroom, with reliable pedagogy and an expert reader's knowledge of what works for students.
As series editor for The Best American Essays, Robert Atwan constantly scours a wide range of periodicals, bringing to America Now an unrivaled focus on today’s best writing. Instructors tell us that their students want to respond to the essays in the book, and they praise the high-quality reading and writing instruction, critical thinking and reading questions, and model student essays that help them do so.Every current, professional reading in America Now is new to this edition, making it truly a book for today's composition course.
Features
Only the best brief, current, high-interest readings. Every essay is short, accessible, and engaging. To stimulate productive classroom discussion and writing, the readings are arranged into tightly focused units on such themes as freedom of speech, modern love, and the criminal justice system, presenting diverse perspectives on the issues.The expert pedagogy students need. Lively chapter introductions, headnotes, pre-reading questions, writing suggestions, reading questions, helpful advice on expressing opinion, inspiring writing advice from fellow students, and plenty of support for multilingual students create a valuable resource that a set of readings alone can’t match.Historical context for the issues of today. One "America Then" reading per chapter—always a canonical work, such as Langston Hughes’ "That Word Black" in the chapter on language—gives students a deeper understanding of the topic at hand.
Engaging visuals. Comic strips and advertisements, together with advice about how to analyze them, encourage students to think critically about visual texts.
New to This Edition
Every single professional reading is new and was written within the last three years (except the classic "America Then" readings), making America Now the most current short-essay reader available. And as always, the readings are supported by the practical, trustworthy support for students for which America Now is known. Some highlights of the Twelfth Edition include:- Michael I. Niman’s "As Confederate Flags Fall, Columbus Statues Stand Tall" (on confronting America’s past and present)
- Mona Charen’s "Unlock ‘Em Up?" (on examining public policy)
- Christina Cauterucci’s "Should Women Be Required to Register for the Draft?" (on the volatile debate surrounding this question)
"I love the various genres and perspectives each chapter includes. It's very cleverly mixed, and when I ask students what their favorite reading in the chapter was, they don't all give the same answer."
--Ingrid Bowman, University of California, Santa Barbara"It is refreshing to have a textbook that is in touch with the themes and topics that are relevant in America today."
--Wanda Moody, Cisco College"The exercises, especially the ‘Thinking Critically’ questions, are extremely helpful to students. They allow students to practice their writing without having to write several essays—and they help them engage with the texts."
--Andrew DiNicola, South Georgia State College"America Now keeps a strong core of reading and writing about important topics at the fore of its purpose. It offers an excellent selection of tools that can be employed by instructors but does so in an unobtrusive manner that doesn't make it gimmicky or just busy work."
--Stephen Swanson, McLennan Community College

America Now
Twelfth Edition| ©2017
Robert Atwan
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America Now
Twelfth Edition| 2017
Robert Atwan
Table of Contents
1. Language: Do Words Matter?
In Brief: Soundbites: What’s in a Name?
Francie Diep, Why Did We Ever Call Undocumented Immigrants "Aliens?" (Pacific Standard)Debate: Is "Sorry" a Magic Word? Lauren Apfel, Should We Make Our Kids Say Sorry? YES. (Brain, Child)Carinn Jade, Should We Make Our Kids Say Sorry? NO. (Brain, Child)Student Essay: Sarah Elliott, Women: Stop Apologizing, Be Confident (The Graphic, Pepperdine University)Spotlight on Data and Research: Mary Meehan, The Perfect Name For The Next Generation Of Americans (Forbes) Robert F. Wilson Jr., I Have a Problem with "Issues" (New Letters)America Then... 1951: Langston Hughes, That Word Black2. Free Speech: Is It Endangered on Campus?
In Brief: Intolerance Doesn’t Belong on Campus
Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, From The Coddling of the American Mind (The Atlantic)Kate Manne, Why I Use Trigger Warnings (The New York Times)Student Debate Brianne Richson, Colleges Should Adopt Trigger Warnings (The Daily Iowan, University of Iowa)Jon Overton, Beware the Trigger Warning (The Daily Iowan, University of Iowa)Lenore Skenazy, How Helicoptered Kids Grow Up to Become Hypersensitive College Students (Reason)Spotlight on Data and Research: Jacob Poushter, 40% of Millennials OK with Limiting Speech Offensive to Minorities (Pew Research Center)America Then...1997: Wendy Kaminer, A Civic Duty to Annoy3. Examining Our Past: Who Writes and Rewrites American History?
In Brief: Bill Bramhall, Mt. Rushmore: Student Activists Demanded Their Removal
Brent Staples, Confederate Memorials as Instruments of Racial Terror (The New York Times)Ernest B. Furgurson, The End of History? (The American Scholar)Michael I. Niman, As Confederate Flags Fall, Columbus Statues Stand Tall (The Public)The National Review, Tubman on the Twenty (The National Review) Spotlight on Data and Research: Marc Santora, Whitesboro, N.Y., in Reversal, Will Change a Logo Called Racist (The New York Times)Student Essay: Adam Hamze, Removal of the Jefferson Davis Statue Falls Short (The Daily Texan, University of Texas) America Then...1493: Michele de Cuneo, Violence in the Virgin Islands4. A College Education: How Valuable Is It?
In Brief: Piyush Mangukiya, from "Is College Worth the Cost? Absolutely." (Huffington Post)
Robert Reich, Why College Is Necessary but Gets You Nowhere (Robert Reich Blog) Suzanne Fields, There’s More to Learning Than a Job Search (The Washington Times)Andrew Hacker, 83 Seconds: How Fast Paced Standardized Testing Has Created a New Glass Ceiling (The Nation) Spotlight on Data and Research: Goldie Blumenstyk, Just Half of Graduates Strongly Agree Their College Education Was Worth the Cost (The Chronicle of Higher Education) Student Essay: Desiree Bergstrom, The Problem with Choosing Between B.S and B.A (Daily Emerald, University of Oregon) America Then...1968: Advertisement: Leave Home5. Race: Does It Still Matter?
In Brief: Claudia Rankine, Yes, Of Course
Robin DiAngelo, White America’s Racial Illiteracy: Why Our National Conversation Is Poisoned from the Start (The Good Men Project)Spotlight on Data and Research: Tom Jacobs, Racism in the Kindergarten Classroom (Pacific Standard) Student Essay: Bryan Stascavage, Why Black Lives Matter Isn’t What You Think (The Wesleyan Argus, Wesleyan University) Dawn Lundy Martin, Weary Oracle (Harper’s) America Then...1852: Frederick Douglass, What to a Slave, Then, is the Fourth of July?6. Diversity and Identity: How Well Is American Immigration Working?
In Brief: Michael Martinez and Miguel Marquez, What’s the Difference Between Immigrant and Refugee?
Eric Foner, Birthright Citizenship Is the Good Kind of American Exceptionalism (The Nation)Wendy Wilson, Come See What Mass Immigration Looks Like in My School (The Federalist) Student Essay: Tadeu Velloso, Brown (Portland Magazine, University of Portland)Spotlight on Data and Research: Matthew Bulger, What Makes an American? (The Humanist)America Then… 1782: J. Hector St. John deCrevecoeur, The Melting Pot7. Guns: Can the Second Amendment Survive?
In Brief: Jane Vincent Taylor, New Law Makes Local Poet Nervous Editorial Board, End the Gun Epidemic in America (The New York Times) Suzanna Hupp (as told to Dave Mann), My Gun Was 100 Yards Away, Completely Useless (Texas Monthly) John A. Fry, Allowing More Guns Won’t Make Campuses Safer (Philadelphia Inquirer)Student essay: Brittney Christ, We Should Be Allowed to Protect Ourselves (The State Hornet, Sacramento State)Spotlight on Data and Research: David A. Fryxell, Shooting from the Lip (Desert Exposure) America Then…1981: Paul Fussell, from "A Well-Regulated Militia"8. Prisons, Police, Punishment: Is Our Criminal Justice System Broken
In Brief: Elijah Paschelke, The Storm
Chandra Bozelko, To Fix the U.S. Prison System, Give Every Inmate the Daily Newspaper, (Quartz) Josh Bowers, The Case for Compassionate Policing (University of Virginia Magazine)Spotlight on Data and Research: Haisam Hussein, Locked Up, A Breakdown of American Life Behind Bars (VICE) Mona Charen, Unlock ‘Em Up? (National Review)Student essay: Sonia Kumar, The Death Sentence is Ineffective, Cruel (The Collegian, Kansas State University)America Then… 1858: Walt Whitman, Editorial: The Death Penalty9. Our Battered Economy: Is the American Dream Over?
In Brief: Barack Obama, The Defining Challenge of Our Time
Student Debate: Income Inequality Mimi Teixeira, Is Income Inequality That Bad? (The Observer, Notre Dame University) Natasha Reifenberg and Patrick LeBlanc, Yes, Income Inequality Really is That Bad (The Observer, Notre Dame University) Spotlight on Data and Research: Eileen Y. Chou, Bidhan L. Parmar, Adam D. Galinsky, The Link Between Income Inequality and Physical Pain (Harvard Business Review) The Economist, Young, Gifted and Held Back (The Economist) America Then . . . 1890: Jacob Riis, From How the Other Half Lives10. Marriage: What Does It Mean Today?
In Brief: Justice Anthony Kennedy, from Obergefell v. Hodges Suzy Khimm, The New Nuclear Family: What Gay Marriage Means for the Future of Parenthood (The New Republic) Susan Estrich, Modern Family (The Hazleton Standard-Speaker)Lavanya Ramanathan, They Didn’t Want an Arranged Marriage (Washington Post Magazine) Student Essay: Kyle Waltman, Saying "I Love You" Should be Done with Intent (The Reflector, Mississippi State University)Spotlight on Data and Research: Pew Research Center: Wendy Wang and Kim Parker, Record Share of Americans Have Never Married (Pew Research Center) America Then...1910: Emma Goldman, Marriage and Love11. The Climate Crisis: Have We Reached the Point of No Return?
In Brief: People’s Views on Climate Change Go Hand in Hand with Their PoliticsOpposing Views Patrick Moore, Why I Am a Climate Change Skeptic (Heartland) Michael Shermer, Why Climate Skeptics Are Wrong (Scientific American) Student Essay: Sophia San Filippo, Action, Not Social Media, Creates Environmental Change (Pipe Dream, Binghamton University)Spotlight on Data and Research: Patrick J. Egan and Megan Mullin, Abstract: Recent Improvement and Projected Worsening of Weather in the United States (Nature)America Then . . . 1962: Rachel Carson, A Fable for Tomorrow12. Gender: What Are The Issues Today?
In Brief: 2015 Word of the Year is Singular "They" Student Essay: Katie Davis, Gender-neutral Bathrooms: Why They Matter (The Red and Black, University of Georgia) Brett Arends, The Idea of the "Gender Pay Gap" is Mostly Bogus (MarketWatch) Christina Cauterucci, Should Women Be Required to Register for the Draft? (Slate)Spotlight on Data and Research: The Psychology of Mansplaining (Psychology Today)America Then….1972: Judy Brady, I Want a Wife
Authors

Robert Atwan
Robert Atwan is the series editor of the annual Best American Essays, which he founded in 1985. A former director of The Blue Hills Writing Institute at Curry College, Atwan has published essays, reviews, and critical articles in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Iowa Review, Denver Quarterly, Kenyon Review, River Teeth, Creative Nonfiction, and many other publications. For Bedford/St. Martin’s, he has also edited Ten on Ten: Major Essayists on Recurring Themes (1992); Our Times (1998); and Convergences (2009). He has coedited (with Jon Roberts) Left, Right, and Center: Voices from Across the Political Spectrum (1996) and is editor of America Now (2017).
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America Now
Twelfth Edition| 2017
Robert Atwan
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