A Tale of Two Cities
by Charles Dickens
Current Events & Pop Culture
Available to teachers only as part of the Teaching A Tale of Two Cities Teacher Pass
Teaching A Tale of Two Cities Teacher Pass includes:
- Assignments & Activities
- Reading Quizzes
- Current Events & Pop Culture articles
- Discussion & Essay Questions
- Challenges & Opportunities
- Related Readings in Literature & History
Sample of Current Events & Pop Culture
Crime: A Tale of Two Cities
We generally think Dickens' title "A Tale of Two Cities" has been badly overused and misused as a metaphor for all sorts of contemporary events and locales, but this series of crime articles is actually worth the read. Not only does it educate the public about crime in two very different cities, Baltimore and London, it harkens back to some of the major themes in Dickens' novel (especially: two cities of two different nations can actually be quite similar). Here's a background blurb from The Baltimore Sun weblog:
"When 'The Wire' gained popularity in Great Britain, we were contacted by a London-based journalist who proposed a job swap. Mark Hughes, a crime reporter with The Independent, a national newspaper in the United Kingdom, wanted to come to Baltimore to see if the city's police officers, drug dealers, prosecutors and politicians bore any resemblance to those on show. We agreed to complete the exchange by sending our police reporter, Justin Fenton, to London to compare crime trends. We'll publish some of their work in the print edition of The Sun, and more observations will be available here."