Nonfiction Article Summaries

Directions: Please read the summaries of each article before visiting this Google Form,
where you’ll rank them based on which one you're most interested in, 1 being the one
you'd most like to read and 6 being the one you'd least like to read.

Clash of Cultures
“Hernán Cortés was a Spanish explorer who conquered the Aztec empire. The Aztec empire
was an advanced civilization that ruled in Mexico before Spanish explorers arrived. This
text discusses the events that lead to the fall of this great civilization.” (Commonlit.org)

Excerpt from The Prince

“Niccoló Machiavelli (1469-1527) discusses the power of cruelty and how it can be used to
retain power. Machiavelli was an Italian Renaissance historian, politician, and writer based
in Florence. His masterpiece, “The Prince,” published in 1532, advises new princes on how
to get and retain power by any means necessary.” (Commonlit.org)

What Makes Good People Do Bad Things?

“Drawing from research, Dittmann explains how situational forces have a powerful effect
on man’s ability to differentiate between right and wrong. In 1971, Phillip Zimbardo, a
psychology professor at Stanford University, oversaw an infamous experiment called the
Stanford Prison Experiment. Stanford students were assigned roles—guard or prisoner—
and were then observed. The experiment was eventually shut down after the guards began
to brutalize the prisoners. In this article by Melissa Dittmann, Zimbardo discusses his
conclusions regarding human nature.” (Commonlit.org)

Gloria Steinem Speech

“In her speech advocating in favor of the Equal Rights Amendment, Gloria Steinem seeks to
dispel myths about women. Gloria Steinem (1934-present) is an American feminist,
journalist, author, and social-political activist. She gained national recognition as a leader of
the ‘Second Wave’ feminist movement in the 1960s-1970s. On May 6th, 1970, Gloria
Steinem stood before the Senate and delivered the following speech, advocating for the
Equal Rights Amendment (ERA); this amendment, which has not been ratified, secures that
one’s rights ‘shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account
of sex.’” (Commonlit.org)

What Fear Can Teach Us

“Imagine you're a shipwrecked sailor adrift in the enormous Pacific. You can choose one of
three directions and save yourself and your shipmates -- but each choice comes with a
fearful consequence too. How do you choose? In telling the story of the whaleship Essex,
novelist Karen Thompson Walker shows how fear propels imagination, as it forces us to
imagine the possible futures and how to cope with them.” (Ted.com)

Teen Pakistani activist urges release of kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls

Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani activist who survived a Taliban assassination attempt in 2012,
traveled to Nigeria for her 17th birthday to urge Islamic extremists to free 219 schoolgirls
who they abducted.