Common Ground: Individual Rights vs. the Common Good
While they're an essential element in any culture, shared values differ from one society to another. One of the most cherished American values, woven deep within the fabric of U.S. culture, is the importance of individual rights. Still, there is a l...
La Paloma: The History and Mystery of the World’s Most Popular Song
In Zanzibar they play it at the end of weddings, in Romania at the end of funerals, in Mexico as a protest song, and in Germany as a sailor’s lament. Written a century and a half ago by Sebastián Iradier and first performed in Cuba, “La Paloma�...
Welcome to My World: Teens Explore Diversity
Operation Breaking Stereotypes is a high school exchange program that allows inner-city students to attend school in Maine, and students from rural Maine to attend school in New York City. The goal is to promote mutual understanding—but are the te...
Common Ground: Amish, The: Portrait of a Subculture
The Amish are a unique religious subculture in American society. In addition to speaking their native Pennsylvania Dutch language along with English, the Amish are known for their close-knit sense of community and for depending on one another for mo...
Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth - Physical Geographic Influences on the Development of Human Societies
About this title: One of the great debates in geography has been: 'How much does place or physical geography determine human development - cultural and economic?' Using historical examples and present-day case histories, Alec Murphy guides you throu...
India: A Dangerous Place to Be a Woman
In December 2012, a young medical student was brutally gang-raped on board a bus in Delhi. Horrified by the attack, 28-year-old British Asian Radha Bedi travels to India to uncover the reality of life for young women there. Radha has been to India b...
Common Ground: Society of Consumers, A
With its emphasis on financial accomplishment, culture in the United States often seems to revolve around consumerism. When America's love affair with consumption began in earnest in the 1940s and 50s, some likened it to a revolution.
Common Ground: Amish, The: A World Apart
The Amish church bases its religious teachings on Anabaptist beliefs, which emphasize that the church is a distinctive social community that's separate and apart from the outside world.
Common Ground: Persistence of Religion in America, The
Religion has always been and continues to be an important part of the cultural landscape in the United States. This is something that distinguishes the U.S. from many other modern, industrial societies.
Common Ground: Opportunity and Social Class
As part of its emphasis on personal freedom and responsibility, U.S. culture promotes the notion that every American has the opportunity to achieve success...especially in the financial arena. Most Americans believe that theirs is a classless societ...