Rereading America : Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing

Rating:
Summary: Leftist Liberal Nonsense
Review: Another leftist propaganda book saying the United States is a bad place. Pushes its own liberal agenda.

Rating:
Summary: Curious
Review: Curious how so much propaganda can be infused into a book which is is supposed to be a writing primer. If you can get around the America bashing it will rise all the way up to a rating of worthless. One star is one more than it rates.

Rating:
Summary: Curious
Review: Curious how so much propaganda can be infused into a book which is is supposed to be a writing primer. If you can get around the America bashing it will rise all the way up to a rating of worthless. One star is one more than it rates.

Rating:
Summary: A great text for challenging students to think critically...
Review: I have used this book several times now, and while I have had a few neo-conservative students (like those writing the more scathing comments here) who have initially bristled at the more left-leaning readings, those same students are happy to find that voices from their world (i.e. Michael Medved, Danielle Crittenden) are also represented. In fact, these students have left my class stating that the book surprised them, got them to think about these issues from different perspectives. While it certainly didn't turn them into activists for the left, it did get them to think more critically about the propaganda they are fed from ALL sides of the political spectrum, and it also helped them to decipher solid argument from fallacy-driven writing.

The reason I chose to use this book was that I wanted a text that gracefully integrated voices from a multitude of class, race, gender, and political standpoints. This text does just that. We don't just hear from dead white guys and a few token voices of color and gender. Rather, we hear from people of all different lived experiences--everyone from Dan Rather to June Jordan.

The editors also include some helpful tips for using this book in a composition classroom, which many instructors who are wary of using such controversial material will find useful.

Most composition instructors want to help their students think for themselves, to avoid simply parroting what their favorite pundits and talk radio hosts say, and this book, by challenging what we consider norms in our culture, helps to accomplish that by challenging American cultural myths from all sides of the political and social spectrum. However, if you don't like your class discussions to become heated, and if you are scared of ruffling students' feathers, I would recommend a different book. Actually, The Arlington Reader provides a number of similar readings with a much less politically-charged context.

Overall, however, I find this book to be a gem amidst the many cultural readers out there.

Rating:
Summary: Leftist Liberal Nonsense
Review: I used this book while attending an ESL program in California, and i have to say it is one of the best books i have ever read. It opens your mind in every sense, and it helps you understand diversity, culture, family and racial issues in the US. Very enlightning. I highly recommend it, specially for those who want to better understand american society.

Rating:
Summary: Should be called Re-Editing America.
Review: The authors skillfully elide several hundred words in the midst of their selection from Thomas Jefferson's "Notes on the State of Virginia" in a fashion that substantially alters the text. Anyone who is determined to use this book as an instructional work would do well to carefully examine the contents before making a final decision.

Rating:
Summary: the most pathetic book I have ever bought
Review: This book is pure mindless drivel for the uneducated mind! Rereading America is chock full of liberal antidotes on our society-from education to class. Read this book and you will find that it feels that college freshmen and sophomores are sheltered conservative creatures who need their eyes opened. The civil rights movement never happened according to this book. Minorities are repressed and they never ever get aid to college! (Funny how every minority I know at USU is here on a full ride scholarship or full housing scholarship) White men are ruining our country! There is no economic opportunity in the U.S.! None! We should give more aid to poor people and squeeze the middle class more! One article talks about transgender youths and how the gay and the straight communities need to accept them. The same article also slams them, as is evidenced by the vocabulary used by the author. Another article talks about schools: how what school you are in determines how far you will go. They list the poor kids school, the middle class kid school, the upper middle class school, and the private school. It just isn't right that those rich kids get to have a nice life! Yet another claims that African Americans are still repressed in our society, to the point of poverty-they really have no opportunity don't you know, I mean it is worse than in the days when Martin Luther King Jr. was alive! And yet when I visit college webpages you will never guess what I find-especially when I look deeper into the school's history. More minorities and women than ever before are going to college. Rich people actually lose half their wages to the federal government. This book also blames the poverty problem in the U.S. on the government. Truth is that the average American-rich, middle class or poor-is not willing to pay more for goods or services. This book also chopped up articles from books by Michael Moore and Barbara Ehreinrich-think "Stupid White Men" and "Nickel and Dimed" here. The articles left over leave the reader clueless. Its much better to actually read the individual books. This reader claims that it is supposed to educate college students about the "real" world. How much of this is real? Not much, really. A lot of it is outdated fiction at best. And I cannot name a single student at my college who had to buy this book that actually enjoys it. And a good deal of us find it insulting. If I wasn't going to return it for money at the end of the semester so some other poor unfortunate English 1010 or 2010 student can get stuck with it, I would use it as kindling for my parent's fireplace. This really is the most pathetic excuse of a reader I have ever seen. USU, please bring back "The Prose Reader." The two star rating is for the articles by Moore and Ehrienrich, the only two that I could stand out of this entire book.

Rating:
Summary: Rereading America
Review: This was an excellent text. It creates a great opportunity to examine the myths perpetuated in American society. While there may be kernals of truth to base many longstanding myths in our society on, most of them, as evidenced by reality, are false. This book gives the reader a chance to combat the lies that permeate the mainstream media, and truly critically think about our culture.---As I read the other reviews I could not help but laugh, as the reviewers were obviously brainwashed by propaganda from the likes of Rush Limbaugh,Fox News, ect. ect.

Rating:
Summary: Rereading America
Review: This was an excellent text. It creates a great opportunity to examine the myths perpetuated in American society. While there may be kernals of truth to base many longstanding myths in our society on, most of them, as evidenced by reality, are false. This book gives the reader a chance to combat the lies that permeate the mainstream media, and truly critically think about our culture.---As I read the other reviews I could not help but laugh, as the reviewers were obviously brainwashed by propaganda from the likes of Rush Limbaugh,Fox News, ect. ect.