Literary Texts

  • MCMXIV (Philip Larkin)
  • The Soldier (Rupert Brooke)
  • Does It Matter? (Siegfried Sassoon)
  • Shooting an Elephant (George Orwell)
  • I Don't Know How She Does It (Allison Pearson)


Literature is an important resource for understanding social studies. Though social and historical articles can provide context and analysis, it is stories – both real and fictional – that can best convey personal insight and experience. We have provided several such stories as well as a number of poems throughout the book. They act as windows into the worlds we are describing.

George Orwell writes about his days as a policeman in colonial Burma. A rampaging elephant is at the centre of his essay. George Orwell writes about his days as a policeman in colonial Burma. A rampaging elephant is at the centre of his essay.