Civil Society

Possibly the most emotionally charged debate taking place in the US today centers on the Second Amendment and the rights of citizens to bear arms. In the wake of school massacres, the gun rights movement, headed by the National Rifle Association, appears more intractable than ever in its fight against gun control laws. Their core argument is that the proliferation of firearms is essential to maintaining freedom in America, providing private citizens with a defense against possible government tyranny, and thus safeguarding all our other rights. But is this argument valid? Do guns indeed make us free?

Iqbal Masih, ceduto dalla sua famiglia di contadini ridotti in miseria, in cambio del prestito di 26 dollari, costretto a lavorare in una tessitura di tappeti dall'alba al tramonto, incatenato al telaio, in condizioni disumane, come milioni di altri bambini nei paesi più poveri del mondo, troverà la forza di ribellarsi, di far arrestare il suo padrone, di denunciare la "mafia dei tappeti", contribuendo alla liberazione di centinaia di altri piccoli schiavi.

It didn't just start with #MeToo. Today's feminism is more diverse than ever before and asks all kinds of questions. Feminism Is... tackles topics including intersectionality, the gender pay gap, the male gaze, and mansplaining. Find out what equality for women really means, get a short history of feminism, and take a look at the concerns affecting women at work, in the home, and around sex and identity. Get answers to the big issues and meet some of the most groundbreaking feminists like Audre Lorde and bell hooks.

Drawing from a wide array of materials, Ian C. Hope refutes earlier charges of a lack of professionalization in the antebellum American army and an overreliance on the teachings of Swiss military theorist Antoine de Jomini. Instead, Hope shows that inculcation in West Point's American military curriculum eventually came to provide the army with an officer corps that shared a common doctrine and common skill in military problem solving.

Sixteen historians, all members of the Society of Independent Southern Historians, have come together to write this truthful history of America specifically for home-schooled students. Herein is a history that is truthful, concise, yet comprehensive, written especially for students of middle school and high school age and for the parents who provide guidance through the home school educational approach. The 40 student lessons in this book present 278 years of our history.

The welfare state rests on the assumption that people have rights to food, shelter, health care, retirement income, and other goods provided by the government. David Kelley examines the historical origins of that assumption, and the rationale used to support it today.

In this personal, moving essay, youth activist Hannah Testa shares with listeners how she led a grassroots political campaign to successfully pass state legislation limiting single-use plastics and how she influenced global businesses to adopt more sustainable practices. Through her personal journey, listeners can learn how they, too, can follow in Hannah's footsteps and lower their carbon footprint by simply refusing single-use plastics.

For Minnesota students Tasha and Gabe, the current school year is anything but normal. Stuck at home in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, the two struggle to deal with the drastic changes brought on by stay-at-home orders, as well as tough but honest conversations about the racial injustice that shook their community. Though different ages and backgrounds, Tasha and Gabe form an unlikely friendship that helps them move forward in a seemingly impossible year. What starts out as a journey to survive the school year ultimately leads down the path of unexpected opportunities.

On March 2, 1955, a slim, bespectacled teenager refused to give up her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus in Mont-gomery, Alabama. Shouting "It's my constitutional right!" as police dragged her off to jail, Claudette Colvin decided she'd had enough of the Jim Crow segregation laws that had angered and puzzled her since she was a young child.

From acclaimed author Patricia Hruby Powell comes the story of a landmark civil rights case, told in spare and gorgeous verse. In 1955, in Caroline County, Virginia, amidst segregation and prejudice, injustice and cruelty, two teenagers fell in love. Their life together broke the law, but their determination would change it. Richard and Mildred Loving were at the heart of a Supreme Court case that legalized marriage between races, and a story of the devoted couple who faced discrimination, fought it, and won.

First published in 1849, this essay argues that individuals have rights and duties in relation to their government. Motivated by his disgust over both slavery and the Mexican-American War, Thoreau argued that individuals must not permit nor enable their government to act against their own consciences. This version of "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience" was recorded as part of Dreamscape's Walden and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience.