CONTEMPORARY STUDIES
Additional Resources
The documents below are NOT required reading for
Contemporary Studies, but may benefit any student seeking further
study of 20th Century American thought and culture.
Click on each title to download a PDF file of the text.
Contemporary Studies, but may benefit any student seeking further
study of 20th Century American thought and culture.
Click on each title to download a PDF file of the text.
"The Wave" by Todd Strasser
How could an entire nation of individuals join Hitler's crusade to spread Nazism across the globe? This novel explores the psychological and social influences of totalitarianism via an experiment in a high school history class. |
"Slaughterhouse Five" by Kurt Vonnegut
Slaughterhouse-Five (taken from the name of the building where the POWs were held) introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life, concentrating on his (and Vonnegut's) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the 1945 firebombing of Dresden. |
"The Outsiders" by S.E. Hinton
Hinton's novel chronicles the socioeconomic division of teenagers in 1965 rural Oklahoma, contrasting the comfortable lives of the wealthy elite against the difficulties of the economically deprived and the social expectations forced on each group. Initially written when Hinton was only 15 years old, the novel was finished and first published shortly after her graduation from high school. |
"House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros
The House on Mango Street follows Esperanza Cordero, a young Latina girl, and her experiences growing up among the Chicano and Puerto Rican cultures of an impoverished Chicago neighborhood during the 1980s. |