The Best American Essays of the Century

I believe that now in the 21st Century the media is responsible for influencing much of our culture. ... The three essays illustrated a common perception of American life. ... These three essays are telling 3 different stories but yet they agree on the point that we love to work, and we give it our best. ... Bill Bryson in his essay wrote "There arose, in the second half of the nineteenth century, mighty bad off men and women who believed with a kind of religious fervor that the consumption of the wrong foods would lead to the breakdown of the national's moral fiber. ......

• Word Count: 1368
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

Matthiessen, the American Renaissance. ... The political influences on American romanticism include 18th century notions about human perfectability, the ideals of American democracy, and the tensions caused by growing concerns over the rights of women and the problem of slavery. ... Significant American Romantic Writers Ralph Waldo Emerson Considered to be a founding writer and philosopher within the American romantic movement, Emerson is perhaps best known for his essays, from which emerge the grounding notions of Transcendentalism. Henry David Thoreau Best known for his work "Walden," Thore...

• Word Count: 917
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Later in the essay Will states; "Two supposed signs of the "crisis" are America's high rate of infant mortality and low rate of immunization of preschool children. ... Secondly, trusting our government and its leaders is another problem facing American in the 21st century. ... This may not always have been the best way to choose a leader. ... Lastly, destroying our environment is another social problem facing Americans in the 21st century. ... The three social problems facing America in the 21st century are births to unmarried woman, being able to trust or government and or leade...

• Word Count: 1312
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

Education system 8 CONCLUSION 9 BIBLIOGRAPHY 10 INTRODUCTION During the last century the conception of a successful management system had significantly changed along with time. Among a large number of management systems introduced worldwide at that time, Japanese and American management systems, in general, emerged as the two most successful ones in the 20th century. ... However, until the last decade of the 20th century, the Japanese economy was in recession and many Japanese companies lost their competitiveness. ... This essay does not imply to introduce an idea...

• Word Count: 1834
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

This essay is commonly referred to as "Civil Disobedience" because of a reprint in 1866 (Baym 964). ... Perhaps the best example of Emersonian self-reliance, was Margaret Fuller, an unconventional writer and thinker in the Nineteenth century. By the time she died in 1850 at the young age of forty, Fuller had already published nearly three hundred works "emerging as one of the best literary critics of her day" (Baym 740). ... In this essay, which was later expanded into a larger work titled Woman in the Nineteenth Century, Fuller presents herself in the fictional character o...

• Word Count: 1963
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Jack London (1876-1916) was easily the most successful and best-known writer in America in the first decade of the 20th century. He is best known for his books, The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and The Sea-Wolf, and a few short stories, such as "To Build a Fire" and "The White Silence." ... He left over fifty books of novels, stories, journalism, and essays. ... His writings became translated in several dozen languages, and he remains more widely read by other countries around the world, than in America. ... A committed socialist, he insisted against editorial pressures to write political es...

• Word Count: 680
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

In the 17th Century, religion was the driving force that challenged people's freedom of thought. ... "Civil Disobedience" argues against the legitimacy of government and laws, and is Thoreau's most famous (and radical) essay. As a result of its deviant nature, however, the essay was largely ignored by the public. ... He believed that the typical American was not the individualist, but rather the conformist. ... "That government is best which governs not at all," he says (Thoreau, qtd. in Parker and Krupat 1792). ...

• Word Count: 789
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

She wrote this essay while working as a lecturer in the Program for the Study of Women and Men at USC. In this essay, she provides historical backgrounds on weight loss, and discusses where the image of an "ideal" weight came from. ... The best explanation is that we have allowed the pursuit of a lean, fat-free body bloom into a religion. ... In centuries before, a slightly larger body was actually desired among the elite of society. ... For the most part, the information she relates is significant, however, I do not feel that the information regarding the centuries before ours were necess...

• Word Count: 879
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

The second of the two time periods assigned to African American literature is 20th century, and that would include authors such as Sterling A. ... I believe that The Souls of Black Folk is one of Dubois" best works because of the description of life for an African American during that time, and also for explaining the problem and trying to state options to solve the problem. ... Best known for his book Cane, which included poetry, sketches, short stories and a play, Toomer was established as one of the leading American writers during the 1920's. ... Toomer's last book published aft...

• Word Count: 2200
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: Undergraduate