I'm using this excellent book to teach my Black studies class right now. Primarily, it provides each side of debates of famous issues in Black history. For example, Thomas Jefferson's theories of Black inferiority are compared with Benjamin Banneker's beleifs in the equality of all, Booker T. Washington's "bootstrap theory" is compared with WEB DuBois's belief in social protest, MLK's veiws on the inclusion of Blacks in American society is compared with Malcolm X's views on Black Nationalism, etc. Complete lectures, speeches, and wirings in the own words of the people who are discussed, are given so that the reader/students may make up their own minds. Teachers, take note of this and consider it for your classes.

A bit larger than most OV books, and a bit more academic, this book describes all the major problems of the Third World, such as famines, poverty, and civil and international war. Each of these essays is a short introduction to a section in the book and is followed by about 7 essays providing various solutions to the problem, or on occasion asserting either that there is no problem ("child labor is good for the US economy!") or that there is nothing that can be done ("if we try to stop a war, we'll just make it worse").

No matter what your political persuasion, you should probably be able to find some creedence in the opinions of the many people who wrote essays that were excerpted for this book.

I am writing this review to make sure that people know that this is a collection of PRIMARY sources. Since there are no editorial reviews posted on Amazon, I assumed that this book was a collection of articles by contemporaries DEBATING history. In any case, although this book wasn't what I was looking for, it seems very substantive as far as primary sources go. It also seems like it is directed more at history teachers looking for teaching materials.

Contains articles (written by historical figures from John Winthrop to Thomas Jefferson to Frederick Douglass) about the original English colonization, the question of Native Americans, Puritans and religious tolerance, the Revolutionary War, the formation of the Constitution, the National Bank, Sedition Act, Jay Treaty, Louisiana Purchase, Federalism, immigration, expanding suffrage, annexation of Texas and war with Mexico, slavery, secession, and Reconstruction.

O yea, this book is great. It is an excellent primary source for my research papers. It is a little hard to understand because of the old speech, but other than that, it is excellent. It practically wrote my papers for me!

This slim volume contains 11 articles, six by evolutionists, five by creationists.

The creationist articles are atrocious, but they nevertheless represent the best creationism has to offer: (i) an exposition of the idea of "irreducible complexity" by Michael Behe; (ii) an argument by Duane Gish that creationism should be taught in science classrooms because it is just as scientific as evolution; (iii) the argument, here set forth by Ker C. Thomson, that evolution violates the second law of thermodyanmics; (iv) the argument by Dean L. Overman that life could not have originated without supernatural activity; and (v) a bizarre article by Jonathan Wells arguing that evolutionists believe in evolution only because of pure bias in favor of metaphysical naturalism, and that a designer could not, in fact, have created a world much different than the one we see.

The evolutionist articles are generally good: (i) Richard Dawkins discusses the evolution of the eye; (ii) the National Academy of Sciences offers its statement about evolution and the relationship between science and religion; (iii) Robert T. Pennock explains why evolution does not violate the second law of thermodynamics; (iv) Michael Ruse takes a scattershot approach against all sorts of creationist arguments and assertions; (v) David A. Thomas argues that the fossil record supports evolution; and (vi) Kenneth R. Miller explains why he thinks evolution is perfectly consistent with belief in God.

This book does not by any means cover all of the ground there is to cover in the debate (for instance, there are no selections concerning the age of the earth), and not all of the selections are exactly matched against one another in a point-counterpoint fashion (that is, half of a creationist article may be refuted in one evolutionist article, and the other half in a different one), but all in all, this is a decent starting point for new students of the creationism vs. evolution debate.

Throughout time, people have gone to war solely over differences of religion. I've always been intrigued by what makes religions different. Many of us are brought up to believe that our religion is the one true religion. If you are trying to understand other religions, this book is a good place to start.

This book, edited by John Lyden, follows the Enduring Issues series by answering questions by using forty essays written by people devoted to their religion. Lyden provides eight essays in response to each of the five questions that he asks. The five questions are: --What is religion? --What should one think about religions other than one's own? --What is the sacred? --How can one find meaning in life? --What lies beyond death?

The eight essays in response to each question come from Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and Native American Sioux. He begins each essay with a small amount of background into the author and his involvement with his religion.

Unsurprisingly, many of these viewpoints are in stark contrast to each other, and there are some amazing similarities across the religions. Some of the essays are very illuminating, and are interesting to read. Other essays are very difficult to understand either because of the writing or of the foreign ideas introduced.

If you are looking for definitive answers to the questions above, this is not the book for you. This isn't the type of book that will make you abandon your religion in favor of another, but this book just might get you thinking about these questions as well as providing an appreciation of the difference between these religions.

This book is a series of articles by Bruno Leone. The book covers specific topics such as the Barbarians and their forcing of the Roman Empire to fall, Saints and Sinners with a primary focus on Thomas Becket, Emperors and Kings with highlights on Charlemagne, William the Conqueror, King John, and Louis VI and Lous IX. Also covered are the Crusades, and the Jewish influence in Europe. While the book is easy to read as Leone's style lends its self to a quick read, I find some of the research lacking. A few of the resources come from less and full acedemic peer reviewed articles. I think for general reading, and some research projects this book will be very suitable. It is an interesting read, and well worth picking up if you enjoy the middle ages.

This is a good book that is extremely fair and unprejudiced in presenting the views of people who aren't fair or unprejudiced. Actually, I read this book because I thought it was about Third World poverty (and there is one, called simply "Third World", that is), but nevertheless this book highlights the fact that there is some poverty even in America, a fact most of the essayists acknowledge, and propose various solutions to remedy the problem. Every major opinion is represented, and each is given equal time. The only problem I see here is that many of the essays are a bit outdated (many written during the Depression Era, when domestic poverty was a much worse problem).

This was a book full of a wide variety of ideas on the subject of racism. I gave the reader a chance to read opposing viewpoints on racism by simply turning the page. I would encourage everyone to read this book. It opens a readers' eyes to different opinions on the issue on racism.

This apparently is a book in the Opposing Viewpoints series that has been discontinued, as the latest version I have seen was written in 1986, before the fall of the USSR. Thus, virtually all of the essays in the book are pointless and obsolete. One of them is simply an excerpt from the writings of Karl Marx in 1848. While the majority of the books in this series are very informative and well worth reading, this one, unfortunately, is not.