9-12 Social Studies Reading List
Great Books high school social studies anthologies include a diverse collection of provocative readings about human rights, democracy, and civic activity.
Citizens of the World: Readings in Human Rights, Expanded Edition
How to Keep a Slave
Hortensia's Protest
Letter XLVII
Magna Carta
English Bill of Rights*
Second Treatise of Government*
The Social Contract*
Declaration of Independence
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
Constitution of the United States of America
(Preamble and Bill of Rights)
State of the Union Address*
Emancipation Proclamation
The United States of American v. Susan B. Anthony*
Slavery of the Henequen Plantations of Yucatan
Independence v. Swaraj
Gandhi's Followers Protest the Salt Tax
The Stalin Epigram
The Arrest of Osip Mandelstam
I Will Bear Witness*
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Harlem [2]
Survival in Auschwitz*
Defending Freedom and Freedom of Speech
Letter from Birmingham Jail
The Rivonia Trial: Second Court Statement*
Letter to Deng Xiaoping
The Censors
We Say No
A Few Remarks
Comrades
The War and the Law
Safeguard Your Lives
Red Scarf Girl*
My Forbidden Face*
The Perplexities of the Rights of Man
The Cancer of Human Rights*
Promoting Human Rights
Let's Fight Terrorism, Not the Constitution
Confusing Freedom with License—Licenses Terrorism, Not Freedom
Moral Prohibition at a Price
Should We Fight Terror with Torture?
*Indicates a selection take from a longer work.
The Will of the People: Readings in American Democracy
Declaration of Independence
The Federalist Papers (Nos. 10, 51, 78)
Constitution of the United States of America
Farewell Address
Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, Seneca Falls Convention
Emancipation Proclamation
Gettysburg Address
Second Inaugural Address
Address to the First Annual Meeting of the American Equal Rights Association
The United States of America v. Susan B. Anthony
Let America Be America Again
Letter from Birmingham Jail
PART I: ASSOCIATING
Selection from Politics
Waiting for the Barbarians
I Shall Not Beg for my Rights
The Boy Without a Flag
They'll Say, "She Must Be from Another Country"
Fellowship
Earliest Impressions
He Sits Down on the Floor of a School for the Retarded
Selection from The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Selection from Democracy in America
Selection from The Souls of Black Folk
Theme for English B
Recitatif
Mending Wall
PART II: SERVING
Luella Miller
Dry Dock
Saving the Crippled Boy
The Eleventh
The Moral Equivalent of War
The Subjective Necessity of Social Settlements
The Drum Major Instinct
The Book of Ruth
Selection from Specimen Days
The Lovers of the Poor
What We Don't Talk About When We Don't Talk About Service
PART III: GIVING
Where Were We
Selection from The Reveries of the Solitary Walker
The Sweetness of Charity
The Lamb and the Pinecone
The Gospel of Wealth, Part I
Selection from "Self-Reliance"
Compassion: The Wish-Fulfilling Jewel
A Bed for the Night
Four Traditions of Philanthropy
Selection from the Mishneh Torah
If All Who Have Begged Help
PART IV: LEADING
The Wife of His Youth
II Samuel, Chapters 11-12
The Destructors
The Helmsman
The Lesson
The Use of Force
Selection from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
The History Teacher
Second Inaugural Address
The Minister's Black Veil
APPENDIXES
Appendix A
Appendix B
Talking Service: Readings for Civic Reflection
A Bed for the Night
The Lamb and the Pinecone
Theme for English B
Selection from The Reveries of the Solitary Walker
Fellowship
Earliest Impressions
A Gift of Love
