Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing, 9th Edition

College book was ok

As the title says, I purchased this book for class. While it's not really that much of a good read, any class you might have that requires you to have this book will probably end up being a very good class. I've read some other reviews about how this book is "Unamerican" or any of that bull. It's honestly just a book filled with essays from some pretty smart people talking about how America isn't all you've been told it is. As the title of the book suggests, "Rereading America" would imply that you have been taught all about how America is, but maybe you should red over some history again and see how America really is.The main points of this book are, The myth of a happy family, The myth of the American dream, The myth of gender, The myth of government, so on and so fourth.The book itself is boring, but the overall image of the book is very nice. Would recommend outside of a classroom, but not at all a "quiet read at the fireplace" sort of book.

This textbook is a well-organized college-grade textbook with many topics based on current events. However, the book is very one-sided on many issues presented. Many reviewers would complain that the book is too "liberal" and they wouldn't be wrong in my opinion. It would have been preferred to see a more balanced presentation of both sides' arguments. However, that doesn't necessarily take away from the rest of what the book offers. Many good essays, some are great, while some are terrible and out of place for any school textbook. It's not the one I'd have chosen, but if the editors fix these issues, this would be a great textbook for critical thinking and writing, as it's advertised for.

There are a lot of Essays in this book that can really strike up some interesting conversations. I did not get to read a lot of the Essays just 3-4 in my summer course. Overall its a good book. Oh Yeah almost forgot! Small spoiler but helps.. Most of the Essays or stories in this book are just parts of the Essays.. Once you get reading on this you will see what I mean..

The book was amazing! I was expecting a torn old book with pages falling out, but that did not happen. I was surprised to find out that the book was used gently, which was great for me because I needed it for an English Class

This collection of essays is a real hit or miss. Sometimes the pieces were culturally relevant and funny but most of the time they were, well, essays. My teacher had us read 20-30 of these and have discussions but sometimes the essays were upwards to 20 dense pages with boring diction. The only real difference between this edition and the last is the removal of one section of essays that was replaced with a section on American freedom (or myths of.) Good price on the text that was in great condition though.

While this is not a history book, this will look back on the many issues that we face today and how the past shaped them to what we know today. I found it engaging with an appropriate number of pictures, it is not flooded nor devoid of them, just right. The book asks many critical thinking questions that has you having to look at both sides of an argument, rarely there is a plain as day right or wrong here.

I purchased this because it was required for an English class, but I found the essays to be thought provoking. While the reader may not agree with the author's point of view, I think that this disagreement could invigorate the writing assigned to the readings. It may even challenge why you believe what you do or lead you to examine why you disagree - this may be uncomfortable. You need to do this, it's called critical thinking.