This collection offers provocative selections designed to appeal to readers with varied backgrounds. Accessible and engaging,The Blair Readerencourages critical thinking; you can make your own decisions about issues that shape the world. The sixth edition includes new ficiton, literature, and poetry as well as new essays and new illustrations.Varied and numerous, the themes covered in this collection include: Family and Memory, Issues in Education, The Politics of Language, Media and Society, Women and Men, The American Dream, The Wired Revolution, Medicine and Human Values, Earth in the Balance, and Making Choices.An interesting and exciting group of selections for anyone interested in the world's issues, and how writers, past and present, have interpreted them.