Young Americans

Media critic and former CNN editor Mindich takes a common belief"that young people have largely abandoned traditional news"and thoroughly examines many related, more obscure trends to convincingly argue that most young Americans who are "tuned out" not only threaten their own generation but also "democracy itself." Using a range of research approaches, from first-person interviews to large statistical studies of audience preferences, Mindich explodes a number of myths about why young people have shunned serious news.

The thirteen original essays are based on research in schools and in settings beyond the schoolyard where civic life is experienced. One focus is on programs for those schools in poor communities that tend to overlook civic education. Another chapter reports on how two city governments–Hampton, Virginia, and San Francisco–have invited youth to participate on boards and in agencies.

In 1936, some 2,800 young Americans, together with 50,000 volunteers from 54 countries, offered their lives in defense of the Spanish Republic. What is less known is that 85 African Americans joined that heroic struggle to fight against racism and for the very civil rights denied to them in their own country. This is their story, an untold chapter in the history of both the United States and Spain. The adventures of invisible heroes who answered the call of a distant war to fight for their own freedom.