REVISITING AMERICA

Revisiting America: Readings in Race, Culture, and Conflict

Application to Your Life

Abstract

Susan Wyle had collected and organized chronologically readings which highlight racial, and cultural conflicts throughout the history of the United States. The essays, speeches and political cartoons compiled into Revisiting American give a well balanced overview of both sides of important conflicts of race class and gender in the United States. From the early conflicts on the Eastern shore with the Native Americans, the Salem witch trials, the settlement of the wild west up through the Great Depression, Civil Rights movement, Vietnam and the tragedy of September 11, 2001, the reader is given glimpses into the power of language, the shaping of ideas, attitudes and policies and the resulting conflicts.

Revisiting America: Readings in Race, Culture, and Conflict

Introduction

Revisiting America: Readings in Race, Culture, and Conflict is a book designed for first-year college students. Roughly organized chronologically, this text offers readings on myriad racial and cultural struggles in the past and present America. The philosophy behind this reader is that a combination of primary, secondary, and literary sources will encourage students to think critically about the issues that have shaped the world around them, issues that take root in the early history of the United States and that continue to be important in contemporary society (Conlin, 2008). These readings will encourage students to think more deeply about cultural and historical issues that offer opportunities for further study and research. This textbook also seeks to offer students a glimpse into the power of language, written and spoken, in shaping ideas, attitudes, and policies when conflicts arise. Revisiting America do not intend to give a full history of all the conflicts of race, class, and gender in the United States, but rather to offer some key readings that will encourage students to think and write critically and to pursue research topics generated by the readings, discussion questions, and writing suggestions in each chapter.

Discussion

The haves and the have-nots appear to be in a state of perpetual conflict. Those who have the most powerful voices and greatest physical strength seem to have the upper hand. Sometimes those who must subject themselves to the strength of their opponents may never rise to end injustice, as is evident in the case of Native Americans. However, the African Americans struggled through injustice, to attain equality - proof that it is all possible in America (Forsyth, 2009). As the United States faces other conflicts both within and outside of its borders today, this research paper reflects on the reasons and lessons through the history of nation, building upon Wyle's Revisiting America: Readings in Race, Culture, and Conflict. Sigmund Freud, the father of modern psychology, referred to the id as the most demanding part of the self that could be compared to a child who wants his or her demands met here and now. The superego, on the other hand, is the voice of morality, directing the human self according to dictates of the ...