While the disagreements on abortion date to the beginning of our country, most of its public debate has taken place during the 20th century. Herring examines the issue from the debate's origin to its current state and expected future. Narrative chapters include discussions of the pro and con arguments associated with abortion, featuring quotes from doctors, politicians, religious figures, and ordinary people.
First in the new "Historical Guides to Controversial Issues in America" series, this volume studies the major events and periods in the development of the abortion debate...
While the disagreements on abortion date to the beginning of our country, most of its public debate has taken place during the 20th century. Herrin...
Roots of the gun control debate date back to our country's founding. Attorney Constance Crooker traces this debate from its origin to the present day. Narrative chapters examine the theories and rhetoric behind each side of this dispute and show the extent to which the rhetoric is or isn't supported by statistical records. A collection of quotes from pro and con politicians and activists illustrate the passionate nature of the gun control issue.
Students will find a balanced, focused approach to landmark Supreme Court cases, gun control laws, gun rights groups, gun control advocates,...
Roots of the gun control debate date back to our country's founding. Attorney Constance Crooker traces this debate from its origin to the present d...
Genetic engineering has quickly become one of the more controversial issues of our time. Herring provides a detailed history of the debate in a fair and balanced manner, using proponents' points of view to make individual cases, both pro and con. Narrative chapters cover such topics as the Human Genome Project, gene splicing, cloning, genetically altered foods, and DNA and crime-solving.
Students and the general public will find a comprehensive survey of the genetic engineering debate. Appendices include statements from Robert P. George and Peter Singer, two of the most prominent...
Genetic engineering has quickly become one of the more controversial issues of our time. Herring provides a detailed history of the debate in a fai...
The same-sex marriage debate is currently a central preoccupation of Western society, and both those for and against it have their points of view. After examining religious and social attitudes toward homosexuality and marriage throughout history, Phy-Olsen examines the strongest arguments on both sides of this highly contested issue. Readers are presented with both sides of the debate in an objective manner, and are thus able to form their own opinions.
Written for students and the general public, the work provides historical and cultural context for examining the issue of same-sex...
The same-sex marriage debate is currently a central preoccupation of Western society, and both those for and against it have their points of view. ...
In the mid-1990s, policymakers in more than half the states and the federal government responded to escalating crime rates and a series of sensationalized crimes by passing laws that imposed lifetime sentences on repeat offenders. Since then, the Three Strikes and You're Out movement, which embodies the overall get tough with crime approach to criminal sentencing, has generated much controversy. Critics argue that Three Strike laws are disproportionate, costly, and inefficient. Supporters, however, argue that the laws are effective, necessary, and just. Despite the controversy, Three...
In the mid-1990s, policymakers in more than half the states and the federal government responded to escalating crime rates and a series of sensatio...
Throughout U.S. history, attitudes toward young people have vacillated between fear of and fear for. These attitudes impact social programs for youth, including the system of juvenile justice. Attitudes are shaped by the socio-political and cultural cliimate of the times, and can be traced back to colonial times. However, changing mores and values often create confusion and conflict, resulting in ineffective strategies for preventing and responding to juvenile delinquency. Tracing the history of juvenile justice back to the pre-colonial era through the present day, Finley sheds light on...
Throughout U.S. history, attitudes toward young people have vacillated between fear of and fear for. These attitudes impact social programs for you...
Welfare politics have now been part of American life for four centuries. Beyond a persistent general idea that Americans have a collective obligation to provide for the poorest among us, there has been little common ground on which to forge political and philosophical consensus. Are poor people poor because of their own shortcomings and moral failings, or because of systemic societal and economic obstacles? That is, does poverty have individual or structural causes? This book demonstrates why neither of these two polemical stances has been able to prevail permanently over the other and...
Welfare politics have now been part of American life for four centuries. Beyond a persistent general idea that Americans have a collective obligati...
The great majority of Americans--more than 80%--say they approve of gambling, even if they themselves don't gamble. Still, deep divisions persist in our attitudes toward the gambling industry. Is it profoundly destructive, preying on human weakness and stripping its victims of their sustenance and dignity? Or is it a vehicle of the American dream--an engine of personal enrichment, enormous public revenue, and economic development? The industry's explosive growth has sharpened the debate, radically altering the gambling landscape and dramatically raising the stakes involved. Author Richard...
The great majority of Americans--more than 80%--say they approve of gambling, even if they themselves don't gamble. Still, deep divisions persist i...
Ever since the Bill of Rights became the cornerstone on which individual Americans' rights and liberties rest, the practical realities of honoring the grand principles of the First Amendment have been hotly contested, and none more so than freedom of expression. From governmental limits on robust, even vicious, colonial- and Federal-era newspaper attacks to the USA PATRIOT Act to efforts to rein in the vast and anarchic Internet, the First Amendment protection of free expression has been virtually under siege by various forms of censorship, some clearly pernicious and others evidently...
Ever since the Bill of Rights became the cornerstone on which individual Americans' rights and liberties rest, the practical realities of honoring ...
Revelations about U.S. torture and prisoner abuse in blatant violation of the long-established and universally recognized Geneva Conventions have horrified most Americans. Nevertheless, it has been argued that the high stakes of the War on Terror have made the protections offered by the Conventions obsolete, or that the abuses are the work of a few rogue soldiers and officers. This book reaches past the headlines into the historical record to document POW torture and also domestic prisoner abuse dating well back in our history as well as government and military knowledge of and collusion...
Revelations about U.S. torture and prisoner abuse in blatant violation of the long-established and universally recognized Geneva Conventions have h...
