Professional Documents
Culture Documents
3 L A NGU A GE A ND RH E T O R I C 145
4 TH E A RT S 233
6 L AW A ND GO VER N M E N T 381
7 WA R A ND P EA C E 473
1 2 S U P P O RTING ID EA S 649
Supporting Claims with Evidence 6 5 0 6 Logos: Appeals to Logic
and Reason 652 6 Pathos: Appeals to Emotion 6 6 1 6 Ethos: The
Writer’s Appeal 663 6 Anticipating Counterarguments 6 6 6
1 3 S Y NT H ES IZ ING ID EA S 668
Summarizing Multiple Sources 6 6 9 6 Comparing and
Contrasting 670 6 Finding Themes and Patterns 6 7 2 6 Synthesizing
Ideas to Form Your Own Argument 6 7 6
Credits 709
Index 713
Preface
o
F ROM THE START Reading the World: Ideas That Matter has been based on a
simple premise: that the great-ideas tradition is fully compatible with the objec-
tives of multiculturalism. To me, this has always seemed obvious. Great ideas are
not the exclusive province of any culture, or of any historical epoch. Understanding
diversity—really understanding it—requires us to understand the great ideas that
have formed diverse societies. And overcoming prejudice requires us to see the
essential sameness between our own experiences and those that seem alien to us.
By exploring the most important and influential ideas of a variety of human cultures,
we can accomplish both objectives.
In the world of contemporary writing instruction, however, these two approaches
have come to be seen as, if not quite antithetical, at least incompatible. Multicultural
readers largely confine themselves to twentieth- and twenty-first-century issues and
readings, while great-ideas readers focus almost exclusively on Western traditions.
Those who argue in favor of a multicultural approach to teaching reading and writ-
ing often find themselves—in the textbook debates for which English departments
are justly famous—on the other side of the table from those who value a rigorous
introduction to the great-ideas tradition. Reading the World places itself, squarely
and unapologetically, on both sides of the table.
I have been extremely gratified by the responses to Reading the World: Ideas
That Matter. Since it first appeared, I have heard from many instructors who have
used the book and a number of students who have benefitted from its unique
approach. What has gratified me the most is the number of readers who have “got-
ten it,” who have understood the power of the two approaches that I have tried
to combine in this textbook. I believe now more than ever in both the importance
and the viability of a meaningfully multicultural, intellectually rigorous introduction
to the intellectual traditions of the world’s cultures.
Like earlier editions, the new edition groups its reading into chapters devoted
to universal themes. Several possible chapter groupings are purposely absent. The
book does not have, for example, a chapter called “Religion,” but not because
xv
xvi Preface
HIGHLIGHT S
The third edition of Reading the World includes a number of new and updated
texts. In deciding which texts to add and which to retire, I have been guided by the
feedback that I have received from both instructors and students who have used
the first two editions. Some of this feedback has been very specific—comments
about the ways that specific texts have worked in a classroom setting. Much of
it, though, fits into several large patterns that I have tried to address in the third
edition. Among the changes that readers will find are the following:
A new chapter, “The Arts,” explores our appreciation of art—and seeks to under-
stand our fascination with it. With selections from Boethius, Murasaki Shikibu, Leo
Tolstoy, Alice Walker, and more, this chapter explores music, painting, poetry, novels,
aesthetics, and other ways that human beings have exercised their desire to create.
An expanded chapter, “Human Nature and the Mind,” highlights the role of the
mind in fashioning human nature. A drawing from Carl Jung’s The Red Book and
an excerpt from Daniel Kahneman’s bestselling book Thinking, Fast and Slow are
two examples of this chapter’s exploration of our attempts to understand the mind
in all its complexity.
New readings from important women across time and culture include selections
from Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Virginia Woolf, Zeynep Tufekci, and Nobel Prize
winners Wangari Maathai and Tawakkol Karman.
More readings from contemporary authors: Along with the classical texts and
influential ideas from across the spectrum of human cultures, the new edition
includes more recent texts from such influential thinkers as Martha Nussbaum,
Joseph Stiglitz, Vandana Shiva, and Elaine Scarry.
I believe that these changes will help students get more out of their experience
with the new ideas that they will encounter in Reading the World. The essential
features of the book remain unchanged and include
Challenging texts made accessible: The detailed editorial apparatus in Reading
the World will guide students through the process of reading and writing about
sophisticated texts and ideas. Chapter introductions begin with a single question
that all of the selections in a chapter are responding to in some way. These intro-
ductions set out the major issues and concerns that each chapter deals with and
situate each reading in a bigger overall scheme. Text headnotes offer necessary
historical contextual information about the authors and texts. Explanatory footnotes
describe unfamiliar terms, concepts, and references in the selections. Study ques-
tions prompt students to think about the major ideas in each selection, consider
the elements of writing, and think about how texts interact. And writing suggestions
prompt creative, analytical, and comparative responses.
A balance of Western and non-Western texts: Nearly half of the selections come
from Eastern, Islamic, African, and South American sources. These texts highlight both
the differences between Western and non-Western thinking and the similarities in the
ways that all human cultures have formulated and approached essential problems.
A substantial yet flexible guide to reading and writing: At the end of Reading
the World you can find Part 2, The Guide to Reading and Writing, which explores
the writing process from reading critically to generating topic ideas to organiza-
tion and support to evaluating and documenting sources. This substantial segment
draws examples largely from the selections in the book.
Readings on language and rhetoric: One full chapter of the reader is devoted to
primary sources on language and rhetoric. Here, students involved in the writing
process can read accessible selections from writers such as Plato, Aristotle, Gloria
Anzaldúa, and Toni Morrison.
Images as texts: Great ideas are not always expressed in words; sometimes, they
are conveyed through visual texts. Included throughout Reading the World, there-
fore, are the kinds of visual texts that contemporary students need to decode on a
daily basis: drawings, paintings, photographs, monuments, and so on. Not merely
illustrations or visual aids, these complex texts make substantial arguments in their
xviii Preface
own right, and they are presented here as texts, with headnotes, study questions,
and writing suggestions.
Mix of longer and shorter readings: To meet a variety of teaching and assign-
ment styles, the selections in Reading the World vary widely in length. Each chap-
ter includes some pieces of only a page or two, which can be read quickly and
incorporated into group discussions and in-class writing assignments. Each chapter
also includes several medium-length selections, and one or two lengthy selections,
which require in-depth reading and extensive discussion.
Cross-textual connections: The readings work together both within and across
chapters. Following each reading, a set of questions titled “Making Connections”
prompts students to explore these threads.
A CKN O WLEDGMENT S
Reading the World: Ideas That Matter truly has many authors. It owes its existence
to the great writers, artists, philosophers, and critics whose works fill its pages.
Those pages, in turn, are the product of the attention, support, and creative energy
of many people.
After the publication of the first edition, the writing programs at both Shepherd
University and the Catholic University of America invited me to speak with instructors
using the book. I thank these instructors and their students for the crucial feed-
back that they provided. My colleagues at Newman University were also extremely
supportive as I prepared this new edition. I am especially grateful to President
Noreen M. Carrocci for enduring a provost who was occasionally missing in action
as deadlines for the new edition approached.
The staff at W. W. Norton provided more support than I ever imagined possible.
This support began very early in the process, when John Kelly “discovered” the
book during a meeting in my office on other textbook concerns. Marilyn Moller,
who believed in the project from the beginning, was enormously helpful in giving
the book its current shape and configuration—which is far superior to the shape
and configuration that I originally had in mind. Ariella Foss, who edited the third
edition, and Erin Granville, who edited the first two editions, were both outstanding
in every regard. They held me to the same standards of clarity, concision, and logical
consistency that I ask of all students who use Reading the World. Megan Jackson
performed the task of clearing permissions for all the readings. Caitlin Moran did
a superb job project editing the text; and Jillian Burr, Andy Ensor, Sophie Hagen,
Rebecca Homiski, Ben Reynolds, and Claire Wallace were instrumental in managing
the production and editing of this edition. I am also grateful to Carin Berger and
Debra Morton Hoyt for the wonderful cover design.
Reading the World has also benefited tremendously from the teachers and schol-
ars who took valuable time to review the second edition: Alex Blazer (Georgia
College of State University), Robert Epstein (Fairfield University), Mark A. Graves
(Morehead State University), David Holler (University of San Francisco), Mai Nguyen
(Univerity of Tampa), Jonathan Rovner (American University of Iraq, Sulaimani), and
Kelly A. Shea (Seton Hall University). And I also want to thank the teachers and
scholars who reviewed the second edition, and read new selections for the third:
Jenny Bangsund (University of Sioux Falls), Nancy Enright (Seton Hall University),
Keely McCarthy (Chestnut Hill College), Anthony J. Sams (Ivy Tech Community
College), and Thomas Wilmeth (Concordia University).
Finally, Reading the World is the result of personal debts that can never be
adequately repaid. These include debts to my parents, Roger and Linda Austin,
who taught me how to read and who always made sure that I lived in a house full
of books and ideas; to my wife, Karen Austin, for her emotional and intellectual
nurturing during the entire process of conceiving and executing this book—and
for taking a lead role in writing the instructor’s manual that accompanies it; and to
my children, Porter and Clarissa Austin, who patiently endured more than a year
of seeing their daddy always at the computer. My greatest hope is that they will
someday understand why.
xix
Timeline
o
xxi
xxii Timeline 350 BCE TO 800
Fig. 57.
It is desirable to direct attention to the proper horsing of carriages,
that the owners of carriages and horses may so adapt their plans as
to get the most satisfactory result from their arrangements. Not
unfrequently a carriage is ordered for one horse only; when it is
partly made, or perhaps finished, fittings are ordered for two horses;
and it sometimes happens that the two horses put to the light one-
horse carriage are coach-horses, between sixteen and seventeen
hands in height. Such horses, though well adapted to a family
carriage, are quite out of their place attached to a light one. Although
they can draw it at a good pace, and over almost any obstacle in the
road, and do their journey without fatigue, the carriage suffers
sooner or later. The lounging of such horses against a light pole, the
strain thrown on the pole in case of a horse tripping, the certain
breakage that must occur in case of a fall, and the risk of overturning
the carriage, should all be considered before putting a very light
carriage behind very large horses. It also sometimes happens that
miniature broughams and other very small carriages, built as light
and as slight as safety will allow, are afterwards used with a pair of
horses. In such cases, if accidents do not occur through the great
strain of a long pole acting as a lever on very light mechanism, the
parts become strained, do not work as they were intended to do, and
necessitate constant repair from not being adapted to the work put
upon them. Carriage owners should, in their own interest, have their
carriages and horses suited to what they ought and can undergo,
bearing in mind that there are advantages and disadvantages both
with heavy and light carriages. The former are easier and more
comfortable to ride in; they are safer for horses, drivers, and riders;
and the necessary repairs are less frequently required. The lighter
carriages follow the horses more easily, and can therefore do a
longer day’s journey; and, although the necessary repairs may come
more frequently, the saving of the horses may be an advantage that
many persons will consider of the utmost importance. Such light
carriages should, however, be made of the choicest materials and
workmanship, that they may do the work required of them.
A feature in the financial department of coach-making must not be
overlooked, as it has much influence on an important trade. In former
times a large proportion of the carriages were built to order for the
owners; the reverse is now the case; most persons select a finished
carriage which pleases their taste, or an advanced one, and get it
completed their favourite colour. This, of course, necessitates the
employment of a larger capital to meet the altered state of trade,
which now requires so large a stock of carriages to be kept ready for
use.
The excessive competition of recent years has so reduced the
profit on each carriage, that in order to carry on his business without
loss, the builder has to require a prompt payment from his customer
instead of giving a long credit.
The modern system enables the coach-builder to make his
purchases for ready money, and so buy not only better in quality but
at a less cost than for extended credit, in order that he might in his
turn give long credit to his customers, so that he is now obliged to
depend on small profits and quick returns by turning over his capital
more rapidly. He is not now, as much as in former times, the agent of
the persons who supply the materials that he and his workmen
convert into a carriage, but rather the designer, capitalist, and
director of those who seek his service or custom, whether to supply
labour or materials.
From the Government returns we find that carriages of all sorts
have increased from 60,000, in 1814, to 432,600 in 1874—a benefit
to the general population, it is clear, as well as to the workmen. In
1874, 125,000 carriages paid the Government duty.
The valuable library and fine series of photographs of state and
other carriages of the Coach and Coach Harness Makers’ Company
are open to coach artisans every Saturday afternoon. Tickets of
admission may be obtained at the principal coach-builders in
London.
In Calcutta there are several coach-builders of good reputation,
and who employ large numbers of native workmen. Messrs. Dyke
employ 600 hands; Messrs. Stewart and Co., 400; and Messrs.
Eastman, 300. The men are chiefly Hindoos, and are clever and
industrious, but have a singular habit of sitting down to their work.
Owing to the prejudices of the people in regard to the use of animal
fat, the labourers who have to use grease are chiefly
Mahommedans. The wages in the trade vary from sixpence to two
shillings per day.
“In Hindostan” (says Mr. Thrupp) “there are a large number of
vehicles of native build. It has been frequently remarked that there is
little change in Eastern fashions, that tools and workmen are
precisely as they were a thousand years ago, and the work they
produce is precisely the same. In examining, therefore, what is now
done by Indian coach-builders, we are probably noticing carriages of
a similar, if not identical, sort with those in use three thousand years
ago. The commonest cart in Hindostan is called ‘hackery’ by
Europeans; it is on two wheels, with a high axletree bed and a long
platform, frequently made of two bamboos which join in front and
form the pole, to which two oxen are yoked; the whole length is
united by smaller pieces of bamboo, tied together, not nailed. In
France two hundred years ago there was a similar cart, but the main