The generation of ideas : a thematic reader / Quentin Miller.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [777]-778) and index.

Introduction to ideas, critical thinking and writing -- Reacting to authority, youth rebellion: "Advice to youth" / Mark Twain; "Mary" / Maya Angelou -- Act your age, when does adulthood begin?: "Mami gets a job" / Esmeralda Santiago; "I don't want to grow up" / Christopher Noxon -- I am a rock, individualism, isolation, and alienation: "Courting danger" / "Melanie"; "On self-respect" / Joan Didion -- From minor to (what's your) major, identity in college: "Who shall I be?" / Jennifer Crichton; "Becoming mature" / Douglas Heath -- Can't buy me love, money, social class, and the self: "Wealth" / Andrew Carnegie; "American nightmares" / Katherine Newman -- Walking the walk, assimilation and classification: "Stone soup" / Barbara Kingsolver; "Yes, ma'am" / Dierdre N. McCloskey -- Hi-ho, hi-ho! American dreams of American drones?: "Bricklayer's boy" / Alfred Lubrano; "Work and its contents" / Aristides.

"[This book] is a ... composition reader that selects both classic and contemporary readings about generational and individual identity ... The intent of [this book] is to demystify the processes of writing and critical thinking by acknowledging that everyone struggles with them, but that they can be a source of tremendous power"--Pref.