The bestselling history of 175 years of American education. Available at your local bookstore or from Amazon, Powell’s, and Bookshop.org.
Why is teaching the most controversial profession in America? Historically, American public school teaching developed as an explicitly anti-intellectual, working class job. Yet at the same time that we paid public school teachers poorly, policed their political activity, and prevented them from influencing the curriculum, we asked them to eradicate poverty and inequality—a staggering expectation.
In her lively, character-driven history, Dana Goldstein guides us through American education’s many passages, including the feminization of teaching in the 1800s, the establishment of Black schools in the South during Reconstruction, the fateful growth of teachers’ unions, the impact of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements on education, and the ongoing struggle for racial equity in schools. The battles fought over nearly two centuries echo the very dilemmas we confront today.
Praise for The Teacher Wars
“meticulously fair and disarmingly balanced…The book skips nimbly from history to on-the-ground reporting to policy prescription, never falling on its face. If I were still teaching, I’d leave my tattered copy by the sputtering Xerox machine. I’d also recommend it to the average citizen who wants to know why Robert can’t read, and Allison can’t add.”
—New York Times, Alexander Nazaryan
“lively…brings nuance…One of the incidental pleasures of this book is discovering how many historic figures better known for other achievements logged time in the front of a classroom.”
—New York Times Book Review, Claudia Wallis
“[an] engaging history…Goldstein ably sketches reformers past and present, asserting that the common force behind each new wave of school reforms is evangelical conviction, and that new movements often seem based more on faith than on factual evidence. Thorough and fair-minded…her ability to illuminate each new wave’s ‘hype-disillusionment cycle’ is a welcome treatment of a fraught subject.”
“[An] immersive and well-researched history … Attacking a veritable hydra of issues, Goldstein does an admirable job, all while remaining optimistic about the future of this vital profession.”
“smart and valuable”
—The New Republic, Richard Kahlenberg
“engaging…careful historical analysis reveals certain lessons useful to anyone shaping policy, from principals to legislators…Goldstein’s thorough and nuanced book shows that teachers can have extraordinary impacts.”
—San Francisco Chronicle, Nick Romeo
“A sweeping, insightful look at how public education and the teaching profession have evolved and where we may be headed.”
“impressive”
—New York Review of Books, Jonathan Zimmerman
“useful…turns in points that ought to condition the discussion…Goldstein delivers a smart, evenhanded source of counterargument.”
“fascinating…Major parts of the history of education that often get overlooked, such as the fate of black teachers at the dawn of desegregation and the experience of radical teachers under McCarthyism, are portrayed with detail that contextualizes them within the larger contest over schools policy.”
“a book that ought to be read by all American teachers, and read twice by anyone who presumes to advise them.”
—The Los Angeles Review of Books, Andrew Benedict-Nelson
“excellent”
“offers suggestions for improvement that defy partisan agendas…Goldstein writes with verve.”
“far-reaching…Goldstein, a well-known magazine journalist, brings a reporter’s eye for a good story.”
“I confess that when I began Goldstein’s book, I feared it would be a pro-union pity plea, but her writerly commitments are to the historical record, and she gives readers a solid and critically detached account.”