For Writing/Composition courses-especially those with a focus on argument and/or research. This reader emphasizes the argumentative strategies students need to analyze and write arguments. At the same time, it helps students see that Americans have always defined themselves and maintained a sense of unity-despite great diversity-through ongoing public debate about what America means. Selections reflect colonial times to the present and include posters, photographs, advertisements, and court cases in addition to essays, poems, and stories.