Select a non-fiction book on a current issue to read by November 10. This will form the foundation
for a documented essay. Select a topic that interests you and for which you will read one book and
several articles.
You may start by selecting a topic – there is an extensive list on the class website – and then finding a
book on that topic, or you may select one of the suggested books.
Possible titles include:
Health, environmental sustainability & National food polities/laws
The Omnivore’s Dilemma: The Omnivore's Dilemma : A Natural History of Four Meals, Michael Pollan
(2007)
In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, Michael Pollan
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, Eric Schlosser (2001)
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver
Chew on This: Everything You Don’t Want to Know About Fast Food, Eric Schlosser & Charles Wilson,
2006
Twinkie, Deconstructed : My Journey to Discover How the Ingredients Found in Processed Foods Are
Grown, Mined, and Manipulated into What America Eats by Steve Ettlinger (2007)
Environment, Global Warming, Sustainability
Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis, Al Gore (2009)
The Weather Makers: How Man is Changing the Climate and What it Means for Life on Earth, Tim F.
Flannery
The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, Thomas L. Friedman (2007)
The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why it Matters, Rose George
Boiling Point How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, Journalists, and Activists Have Fueled the Climate
Crisis - And What We Can Do to Avert Disaster, Ross Gelbspan (2005)
The Weather Makers, Time Flannery
Lost Mountain, A Year in the Vanishing Wilderness Radical Strip Mining and the Devastation Of
Appalachia, Eric Reece (2007)
Working and Poor
Nickel & Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, Barbara Ehrenreich
Growing Up Empty: The Hunger Epidemic in America, Loretta Schwartz-Nobel, 2002
Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream, Barbara Ehrenreich, 2005
Education – Policy & Equality
The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don't Teach the New Survival Skills Our
Children Need--and What We Can Do about It, Tony Wagner (2010)
City Schools and the American Dream, Pedro Noguera, 2003
College Unranked: Affirming Educational Values in College Admissions, Lloyd Thacker (2004)
Immigration Policy
Enrique’s Journey, Sonia Nazario
The Devil’s Highway: A True Story, Luis Alberto Urrea
The Middle of Everywhere: Helping Refugees Enter The American Community, Mary Bray Pipher
Marketing, Consumerism, Modern Society
Branded Nation: The Marketing of Megachurch, College Inc., and Museumworld, James B. Twitchell
(2004)
Born to Buy, Juliet B. Schor, 2004
Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls, Mary Bray Pipher
Damned Lies and Statistics, Joel Best
The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, Nicholas Carr
Medical Care, Drug Policies
Overdosed America, John Abramson
Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World,
Tracy Kidder, 2004
Unplugged: Reclaiming Our Right to Die in America, William H. Colby
American Foreign Policy
Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror by Richard A. Clarke (2004)
Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson & Relin, 2007
Terror in the Name of God, Jessica Stern
U.S. Business Policies
The Wal-Mart Effect, Charles Fishman, 2006
U.S. Politics, Two-Party System, Financial Policies
Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy, Christopher Hayes
The Assault on Reason: How the Politics of Blind Faith Subvert Wise Decision-Making, Al Gore (2007)
Voice of Reason: Why the Left and Right Are Wrong, Ronn Owens, 1989
Denialism, Michael Specter
Prison System
Dispatches from Juvenile Hall Fixing a Failing System, John Aarons, Lisa Smith, Linda Wagner, 2009
Getting Away With Murder, Raoul Felder & Barbara Victor
You may choose other titles, to be approved by Ms. Lockwood.