American Values (Opposing Viewpoints) [Paperback]

David M. Haugen (Author)

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 13 and up
  
• Paperback: 227 pages
• Publisher: Greenhaven (November 7, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0737741910
• ISBN-13: 978-0737741919
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.5 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #363,642 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5.0 out of 5 stars There's another side to every story. . ., April 30, 2010

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King of Controversy "Can't you see what's goi... (Secret underground location. Fortress of Solitude. Lone Ranger Hideout.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: American Values (Opposing Viewpoints) (Paperback)

I came across American Values (Opposing Viewpoints) at the library and I had to pick it up. I remember from my days in college reading several books from the Opposing Viewpoint series from Greenhaven Press. Inside were various authors and contributors taking different sides on a controversial issue. Generally each book was devoted to one issue, for example, gun rights, or women's rights, or abortion, but inside there was a lot of room to cover different aspects of, for example, the women's movement. You'd hear from Gloria Steinem, and then from Phyllis Schlafly. They'd each get five or six pages to expound on, say, women in the military. You'd hear from someone who was an out-and-out member of this or that communist council and then someone from 'the American Family Institute'. Generally, each book tried to be controversial, or cover a controversial topic. Side by side you could read what activists had to say. Sometimes politicians would be presented. For the most part you'd have to assume these writings and speeches were 'collected' in that they weren't written just for this book.

This is not, and these are not, the same books (I'm sure the originals could still be found - and I would say would be worth reading). This new series is filled with literature from around 2008 or so. In one sense this work is an improvement over the previous set. In once case, in about the middle of this American Values book, both contributors appear to writing about exactly the same topic, a bill apparently before the voting public in California. That gives me a chance to talk about something else in this American Values I wanted to talk about. . . American Values begins with a speech by Mitt Romney (R Massachusetts) in favor of organized religion. It's just a general speech about God and country, perhaps very good but kind of boring. The next contribution is by someone directly opposing Mitt Romney and written presumably in opposition to this exact speech. So Romney is presented giving his opinion. Then the opposing view is stated, not by someone giving their own opinion, but by someone directly critiquing the speech Romney's just given. I have to admit, the follow up contribution is more interesting than Romney's. Also, for Romney's speech, each paragraph was inside quotation marks. The beginning and end of each separate paragraph in his speech was placed inside quotations. No other contributor in the book received this treatment.

So my memory of the Opposing Viewpoints Serious had been betrayed. I remembered them as being 'conservative' books, in that presenting 'opposing viewpoints', really seemed just a way to present the conservative side. . . and I might add, generally to people who wont be hearing it anywhere else. I did pick up two 'opposing viewpoints' books. The other more of less 'confirmed' my earlier opinion. There's not that much room to spoon feed us 'tolerance'. . . or whatever. . . in that each side is allowed to present it's own case pretty much on it's own.

Opposing viewpoints could easily be assigned to high school or college students - it has that kind of look to it. Each separate chapter, or separate point of contention, within the controversial subject matter being presented, begins with a serious of questions, maybe 3 or 4, that ask the reader questions about the upcoming passage. For example, "What is Mitt Romney trying to say about Television affects on young viewers?" Maybe there are 2 or 3 questions before each contribution, can't remember. . . The introductions are not a distraction. The 'controversial' subject matter, perhaps, makes the book easier to read.

American Values improves as it goes along. There's a contribution by conservative rocker Ted Nugent arguing Americans and American kids have gotten fat and lazy. Toward the middle the contributors inside are sometimes using irony, but not to embarrass their own positions, but to strengthen them. I guess, thesis - antithesis - synthesis. But of course a 'synthesis' that just happens to conform to their own viewpoint. . .

Anyway, to quote from the American Values Series, be it 1984 or 2008, "Those who do not understand their opponents arguments do not completely understand their own".