Today we talked about the growing reform movement during the Antebellum period. We saw that, throughout this time, authors began to think and write on their society and how it can improve. Uncle Tom's Cabin, Leaves of Grass, and even Walden can be deemed influential books that effected American society. With that in mind, I pose the question, what books from our generation have effected American society? For me, being a social science nerd, I think one of the better examples is a book entitled Freakonomics. This book, authored by a University of Chicago economics professor and NY Times journalist, looks at statistical analysis and economic thinking in an interesting way. I know going through college in the middle of its hayday, Freakonomics was required reading in many Intro to Econ classes. What are your thoughts? Do you have book suggestions that you think have effected modern society? It doesn't have to be as nerdy as mine. It can be fiction, non-fiction... Anything.
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Yesterday we discussed many ways that American literature was developing during the mid 1800s and was influencing American culture and beliefs. Discuss a book written in the last 10 years that you feel has impacted American society and culture and compare that to some of the literature we have discussed in class. Which was more significant? How does the impact of your book compare to a Walden, Leaves of Grass, or Uncle Tom's Cabin? Feel free to elaborate on any of these subjects and comment on others' ideas.
We have been talking a lot about the formation of a sense of American Nationalism in the era following the War of 1812. However, during this same time period, we've been discussing a growing division in the United States between the North and the South. While a growing economy, national heroes, and projects are bringing us together, issues regarding slavery, representation and a growing debate between states' rights and federalists are tearing us apart.
Due Thursday by 9:50 Do you think this era brought us closer together as a nation or drew us further apart as individual states? Explain your answer by using SPECIFIC examples and comment on one other person's thoughts for 10 bonus points. As we've discussed in class, during the antebellum period, many romantic writers, reformists and abolitionists began to comment on American society, its problems, and how they should be improved. The question I pose to you is, what books out there are commenting on American society today? Research one (or if you've read it, even better!) and tell us about it by adding a comment here. One example, whether you agree with it or not, would have to be Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. It has certainly affected the discussion on the environment and how it relates to American industry and pollution.
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