The Contemporary Reader reader includes more contemporary selections than any other popular culture reader on the market with over 90% of the readings written in the last five years. The text's ten tightly focused thematic chapters cover a range of writing on interesting issues familiar to students and relevant to our times.

Readings are organized around a variety of appealing, thought-provoking themes such as “Fashion and Flesh: The Images We Project,” “Advertising: Wanting It, Selling It,” “On the Cutting Edge of Science: Human Cloning and Genetic Engineering,” “Making the Grade: Education Today,” “Gender Perceptions,” and “The American Experience.”