Genre: Essays & Short Works, Non-fiction
Chapter: 20
Listen: 2
Twenty short nonfiction works chosen by the readers. “Our constitution is color-blind… the law regards man as man and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights…are involved.” Justice Harlan’s eloquent defense of equal rights for Black citizens in his 1866 dissent to Plessy v. Ferguson is one of several Vol. 076 selections which explore social issues and politics: John Adams; Gettysburg Address; Civil Rights Bill (1866); First Philippic of Demosthenes; Manifesto of the Humanitarian League; and Acadian Reminiscences. The multitudinal dimensions of human diversity are displayed in other selections: On Leveling from Amiel’s Journal; Sufism; The Discovery of Witches; The Cruise of the Wasp; Nanook of the North; Fossil Hunting in the Permian of Texas; The Nation’s Capital: What to See; Underground London; Poisons Used by Ancient Races; Genetically Engineered Crops; and Recipes for Ice Creams and Ices. Summary by Sue Anderson.