Taking sides : clashing views on controversial social issues
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Bibliographic Information
Taking sides : clashing views on controversial social issues
Dushkin/McGraw-Hill, c1999
10th ed
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Description and Table of Contents
Description
This debate-style reader is designed to introduce students to controversies in sociology and social problems. The readings, which represent the arguments of leading social scientists and social commentators, reflect a variety of viewpoints, and are presented in pro/con format.
Table of Contents
PART 1. Culture and Values ISSUE 1. Is America in Moral Decline? YES: Gertrude Himmelfarb, from The De-Moralization of Society: From Victorian Virtues to Modern Values NO: Everett C. Ladd, from "The Myth of Moral Decline," The Responsive Community Gertrude Himmelfarb, a professor emeritus of history, details some of the increasing moral problems in America and interprets them as being part of a larger pattern, which she calls "the de-moralization of society." Everett C. Ladd, president of the Roper Center for Public Opinion, empirically tests the moral decline thesis and finds that, according to the indicators that he employs, it is a myth. ISSUE 2. Does the News Media Have a Liberal Bias? YES: H. Joachim Maitre, from "The Tilt to the News: How American Journalism Has Swerved from the Ideal of Objectivity," The World and I NO: Martin A. Lee and Norman Solomon, from Unreliable Sources: A Guide to Detecting Bias in News Media Journalism professor H. Joachim Maitre argues that news reporters are liberals who allow their political views to seep into their reporting. Media critics Martin A. Lee and Norman Solomon argue that media bias in reporting is toward the conservative status quo. ISSUE 3. Is Third World Immigration a Threat to America's Way of Life? YES: Peter Brimelow, from Alien Nation: Common Sense About America's Immigration Disaster NO: John Isbister, from The Immigration Debate: Remaking America Peter Brimelow, a writer and senior editor of Forbes and National Review, asserts that the large influx of immigrants from non-European countries threatens to undermine the cultural foundations of American unity. John Isbister, a provost at the University of California, Santa Cruz, cites research showing that immigration does not have the many negative impacts that people like Brimelow fear. He argues that immigration has a negligible effect on earnings and public finances and that its cultural impacts "will make it more obvious that the United States is a plural and not a unicultural society." PART 2. Sex Roles, Gender, and the Family ISSUE 4. Is Feminism a Harmful Ideology? YES: Robert Sheaffer, from "Feminism, the Noble Lie," Free Inquiry NO: William H. Chafe, from The Paradox of Change: American Women in the Twentieth Century Robert Sheaffer, a consulting editor for Skeptical Inquirer, argues that feminists are attempting to impose an inappropriate equality on men and women that conflicts with basic biological differences between the genders. William H. Chafe, a professor at Duke University, maintains that the vast improvements that women have made and the obvious need to end continuing discrimination demonstrate the value of feminism. (Part contents)
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