45 pages 1 hour read

Shelby Steele

White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era (P.S.)

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2006

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Essay Topics

1.

Personal anecdotes interweave Steele’s book. How do these inflect his writing? Would a less personal approach have amplified or diluted his message? Explain.

2.

Consider the jumbled chronology of Steele’s book. How does skipping back and forth in time help his argument? How does it hinder it?

3.

Steele draws broad conclusions about American society based on his personal observations. Discuss the strengths and weakness of this rhetorical style. Would a traditional scholarly apparatus of citations and footnotes have bolstered or weakened his argument? Explain.

Related Titles

By Shelby Steele