Listing 1 - 10 of 10 |
Sort by
|
Choose an application
Choose an application
For too long we've lacked a compact, inexpensive, authoritative, and compulsively readable book that offers American readers a clear, informative, and inspiring narrative account of their country. Such a fresh retelling of the American story is especially needed today, to shape and deepen young Americans' sense of the land they inhabit, help them to understand its roots and share in its memories, all the while equipping them for the privileges and responsibilities of citizenship in American societyThe existing texts simply fail to tell that story with energy and conviction. Too often they reflect a fragmented outlook that fails to convey to American readers the grand trajectory of their own history. This state of affairs cannot continue for long without producing serious consequences. A great nation needs and deserves a great and coherent narrative, as an expression of its own self-understanding and its aspirations; and it needs to be able to convey that narrative to its young effectively. Of course, it goes without saying that such a narrative cannot be a fairy tale of the past. It will not be convincing if it is not truthful. But as Land of Hope brilliantly shows, there is no contradiction between a truthful account of the American past and an inspiring one. Readers of Land of Hope will find both in its pages.
United States --- History
Choose an application
Choose an application
This Teachers' Guide to Wilfred McClay's Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story will be an invaluable aid to classroom teachers who use Land of Hope as a textbook for courses in United States history. McClay has coauthored the Guide with John McBride, a master teacher with over thirty years of secondary and collegiate teaching experience. The result is an exceptionally rich and useful resource for the enhancement of the classroom experience. Each chapter of Land of Hope has a five-part treatment: a short summation of the chapter's contents, a lengthy set of questions and answers about the text of the chapter, materials that can be deployed in testing or used to sharpen classroom discussion; a set of short objective tests, suitable for quizzes and exams; a primary-source document for class study and analysis; and questions and answers to accompany the document. In addition, there are special units to assist teachers in the giving special coverage to the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Origins of the Two-Party System. Like Land of Hope itself, these materials are designed to help students come away from the study of the American past with a coherent sense of the larger story, and a sense of history as a profoundly reflective activity, one that goes to the depth of our humanity.
Choose an application
This book brings together two seminal works by George Santayana, one of the most significant philosophers of the twentieth century: Character and Opinion in the United States, which stands with Tocqueville's Democracy in America as one the most insightful works of American cultural criticism ever written, and "The Genteel Tradition in American Philosophy," a landmark text of both philosophical analysis and cultural criticism. An introduction by James Seaton situates Santayana in the intellectual and cultural context of his own time. Four additional essays include John Lachs on the ways Santayana's understanding of "the soul of America" help explain the relative peace among nationalities and ethnic groups in the United States; Wilfred M. McClay on Santayana's life of the mind as it relates to dominant trends in American culture; Roger Kimball on Santayana's "most uncommon benefice, common sense"; and James Seaton on Santayana's distinction between "English liberty" and "fierce liberty." All the essays serve to highlight the relevance of Santayana's ideas to current issues in American culture, including education, immigration, and civil rights.
National characteristics, American. --- Philosophy, American --- United States --- Civilization --- National characteristics, American
Choose an application
"Our high-tech, networked society all too often loses sight of the importance of a sense of "place" and community. These essays explain why "place" matters, and how we can cultivate civic engagement and a thriving human experience wherever we choose to live"--
Community development --- Community-based social services --- Civic improvement --- Identity (Psychology)
Choose an application
Choose an application
The abolitionists of the mid-nineteenth century have long been painted in extremes--vilified as reckless zealots who provoked the catastrophic bloodletting of the Civil War, or praised as daring and courageous reformers who hastened the end of slavery. But Andrew Delbanco sees abolitionists in a different light, as the embodiment of a driving force in American history: the recurrent impulse of an adamant minority to rid the world of outrageous evil.Delbanco imparts to the reader a sense of what it meant to be a thoughtful citizen in nineteenth-century America, appalled by slavery yet aware of the fragility of the republic and the high cost of radical action. In this light, we can better understand why the fiery vision of the ";abolitionist imagination"; alarmed such contemporary witnesses as Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne even as they sympathized with the cause. The story of the abolitionists thus becomes both a stirring tale of moral fervor and a cautionary tale of ideological certitude. And it raises the question of when the demand for purifying action is cogent and honorable, and when it is fanatic and irresponsible. Delbanco's work is placed in conversation with responses from literary scholars and historians. These provocative essays bring the past into urgent dialogue with the present, dissecting the power and legacies of a determined movement to bring America's reality into conformity with American ideals.
Choose an application
Choose an application
Lack of civic knowledge, ignorance about the U.S. Constitution, and general ambivalence about education threaten the fiber of this nation. The remedy to this malaise, advocated in various ways by a diverse group of contributors, is a well-rounded, liberal education that prepares citizens to participate in a free republic.
Listing 1 - 10 of 10 |
Sort by
|