In response to requests for briefer and less expensive argument readers, Contemporary and Classic Arguments offers an ample selection of readings in a compact size for about half the price of similar books. Adapted from the best-selling full-size argument text/reader Current Issues and Enduring Questions, it offers both a provocative selection of contemporary arguments to engage students with some of today's most pressing topics, and a collection of classic essays that provide time-tested models of effective argument.

Preface

PART I. DEBATES ON CONTEMPORARY ISSUES

1. Affirmative Action: Is It Fair?
Terry Eastland, Ending Affirmative Action
Burke Marshall and Nicholas deB. Katzenbach, Not Color Blind: Just Blind

2. Cell Phones: Should Their Use While Driving Be Prohibited?
Advocates for Cell Phone Safety, Yes, Prohibit Their Use
Robert W. Hahn and Paul Tetlock, No, Don't Prohibit Their Use

3. Censorship: Should Public Libraries Filter Internet Sites?
David Burt, Yes, Install Filters
Nancy Kranich, No, Do Not Install Filters

4. Gay Marriages: Should They Be Legalized?
Thomas B. Stoddard, Gay Marriages: Make Them Legal
Lisa Schiffren, Gay Marriage, an Oxymoron

5. Gun Control: Would It Really Help?
Sarah Thompson, Concealed Carry Prevents Violent Crimes
Nan Desuka, Why Handguns Must Be Outlawed

PART II. CASEBOOKS ON CONTEMPORARY ISSUES

6. The Death Penalty: Can It Ever Be Justified?
Edward I. Koch, Death and Justice: How Capital Punishment Affirms Life
David Bruck, The Death Penalty
Potter Stewart, Gregg v. Georgia
Harry Blackmun, Dissenting Opinion in Callins v. Collins
Sister Helen Prejean, Executions Are Too Costly -- Morally
Casey Johnson, Yes, The Death Penalty Should Apply to Juveniles
Emma Welch, No, The Death Penalty Should Not Apply to Juveniles
Alex Kozinski and Sean Gallagher, For an Honest Death Penalty

7. Drugs: Should Their Sale and Use Be Legalized?
William J. Bennett, Drug Policy and the Intellectuals
James Q. Wilson, Against the Legalization of Drugs
Milton Friedman, There's No Justice in the War on Drugs
Elliott Currie, Toward a Policy on Drugs

8. The Just War: What Are the Criteria?
G. E. M. Anscombe, The Criteria of a Just War
Peter Steinfels, The Just War Tradition and the Invasion of Iraq
George A. Lopez, Iraq and Just-War Thinking
William A. Galston, The Perils of Preemptive War
Andrew Sullivan, Yes, a War Would Be Moral

9. Privacy: What Are Its Limits?
Amitai Etzioni,Less Privacy Is Good For Us (and You)
Simson Garfinkel, Privacy under Attack
Nadine Strossen, Everyone Is Watching You
E-mail responses to Nadine Strossen
Judith Wagner DeCew, The Feminist Critique of Privacy

10. Sexual Harassment: Is There Any Doubt About What It Is?
Tufts University, What Is Sexual Harassment?
Ellen Goodman, The Reasonable Woman Standard
Ellen Frankel Paul, Bared Buttocks and Federal Cases
Sarah J. McCarthy, Cultural Fascism

11. Torture: Is It Ever Justifiable?
Clinton R. Van Zandt, It Should Not Be Permissible to Torture Suspected Terrorists to Gather Information
Vincent Iacopino, It Should Be Permitted to Torture Suspected Terrorists to Gather Information
Philip B. Heymann, Torture Should Not Be Authorized
Alan M. Dershowitz, Yes, It Should Be "On the books"
Michael Levin, The Case for Torture

PART III. CLASSIC ARGUMENTS

Plato, Crito
The Myth of the Cave
Thomas More, From Utopia
Niccolò Machiavelli, From The Prince
Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal
Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions
Virginia Woolf, Professions for Women
George Orwell, Shooting an Elephant
Martin Luther King Jr., I Have a Dream
Letter from Birmingham Jail
Judy Brady, I Want a Wife
Peter Singer, Animal Liberation
Garrett Hardin, Lifeboat Ethics
James Rachels, Active and Passive Euthanasia

Index of Authors and Titles