REVISITING AMERICA BY SUSAN WYLE

Revisiting America by Susan Wyle

Abstract

Revisiting America: Readings in Race, Culture, and Conflict is a composition reader designed for first-year college students. Roughly organized chronologically, this text offers readings on myriad racial and cultural struggles in 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. 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 is not intended 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.

Revisiting America by Susan Wyle

This roughly organized chronologically, offers contributions on a myriad of racial and cultural struggles in past and present America. Its combination of primary, secondary, and literary sources encourages readers to think critically about the issues which have shaped the world around them, which take root in the early history of the United States, and which continue to be important in society today. The book also offers a glimpse into the power of language—written and spoken—in shaping ideas, attitudes, and politics when conflicts arise. A wide range of readings (by both well- and lesser-known authors), traces the evolution of conflicts in American history from the 17th century on, and compares and contrasts issues involving race, class, and gender over those centuries.

Summary of Chapters

Chapter 1, "Early Conflicts on the Eastern Shore," includes readings that range from a scholarly discussion of the Pocahontas myth to the trial testimonies of the Salem Witch Trials, addressing issues of race, gender, slavery, and freedom in colonial America.

Chapter 2, "The Native Americans versus the Newcomers," offers opposing perspectives from Native Americans, U.S. presidents, and scholars about the loss of Indian lands, the assimilation of Native Americans into white "civilization," and the process of Indian relocation under Presidents Jefferson and Jackson.

Chapter 3, "Conflicts on the Way West," includes a wide variety of primary and secondary sources dealing with the racial, social, and gender -based conflicts experienced by the men and women who traveled West.

Chapter 4, "Slavery and the Civil War," examines the experiences of slaves and freedmen, soldiers and women, politicians and writers who participated in many different aspects of the Civil War.

Chapter 5, "Conflicts in California: The Missions, the Gold Rush, and Chinese Exclusion," offers a variety of writings that portray the conflicts between the Catholic missions and early Californians, the ...