Acting out culture : readings for critical inquiry
(Book - Regular Print)

Preface for instructors -- Introduction: How we read and write about culture (and how we ought to) -- 1. How we believe : In what ways does what we know shape our daily actions? Green guilt / Stephen Asma ; The faces in the mirror / Ty Burr ; Markets and morals / Michael Sandel ; Rule maker/rule breaker : holiday shopping vs. buy nothing Christmas ; Understanding Black patriotism / Michael Eric Dyson ; Then and now : feeling (in)secure ; In defense of single motherhood / Katie Roiphe ; People like us / David Brooks ; The great white way / Debra J. Dickerson ; The restoration of faith / Amitava Kumar ; Tying it all together ; Scenes and un-scenes : political protest ; Putting it into practice : scripting belief -- 2. How we watch : Does what we see depend on how we're looking? The flip side of Internet fame / Jessica Bennett ; Rule maker/rule breaker : J. Rupert Thompson vs. Kelly Bensimon ; Unspeakable conversations / Harriet McBryde Johnson ; The attention-span myth / Virginia Heffernan ; Should we ditch the idea of privacy? / Don Tapscott ; #Me : instagram narcissism and the scourge of the selfie / John Paul Titlow ; Some "Girls" Are Better Than Others / Heather Havrilesky ; Then and now : Wearing your identity on your sleeve ; How companies learn your secrets / Charles Duhigg ; Patriarchy gets funky / Naomi Klein ; Tying it all together ; Scenes and un-scenes : picturing disaster ; Putting it into practice : keeping an eye out -- 3. How we eat : Which rules dictate the foods we put in our bodies? Prudence or cruelty? / Nicholas Kristof ; Rule maker/rule breaker : Whole Foods vs. Michael Pollan ; The ethics of eating meat / Paul Schwennesen ; The wages of sin / Francine Prose ; Add cake, subtract self-esteem / Caroline Knapp ; On eating roadkill / Brendan Buhler ; Then and now : How to make a meatloaf ; No myths here : food stamps, food deserts, and food scarcity / Erika Nicole Kendall ; Food's class warfare / Tracie McMillan ; The obesity-hunger paradox / Sam Dolnick ; Tying it all together ; Scenes and un-scenes : giving thanks ; Putting it into practice : consumer profiling --

4. How we learn : What are our perceptions of knowledge and the ways we should acquire that knowledge? From degrading to de-grading / Alfie Kohn ; Then and now : Encyclopedic knowledge ; Everything you've heard about failing schools is wrong / Kristina Rizga ; Against school / John Taylor Gatto ; Blue-collar brilliance / Mike Rose ; Learning in the shadow of race and class / Bell Hooks ; Unconscious plagiarism / Rachel Toor ; Preparing minds for markets / Jonathan Kozol ; Rule maker/rule breaker : The White House vs. Jonathan Kozol ; Can you make yourself smarter? / Dan Hurley ; Tying it all together ; Scenes and un-scenes : looking and learning ; Putting it into practice : educational scripts

5. How we work

6. How we connect : What forces help - and hinder - our relationships with others? The quagmire of social media friendships / Curtis Silver ; Open and closed / Evgeny Morozov ; There's no place like home / Joel Kotkin ; Won't you be my neighbor? / Peter Lovenheim ; Then and now : Personal shopping ; The empathy deficit / Keith O'Brien ; Rule maker/rule breaker : Barack Obama vs. Rush Limbaugh ; Pics and it didn't happen / Nathan Jurgenson ; The touch-screen generation / Hanna Rosin ; Digital detox, a tech-free retreat for Internet addicts / Claire Suddath ; Tying it all together ; Scenes and un-scenes : "Hello, neighbor" ; Putting it into practice : the more things change...