Perhaps no other historian has had a more profound and revolutionary impact on American education than Howard Zinn. This is the first book devoted to his views on education and its role in a democratic society. Howard Zinn on Democratic Education describes what is missing from school textbooks and in classrooms-and how we move beyond these deficiencies to improve student education. Critical skills of citizenship are insufficiently developed in schools, according to Zinn. Textbooks and curricula must be changed to transcend the recitation of received wisdom too common today in schools. In these respects, recent Bush Administration and educational policies of most previous US presidents have been on the wrong track in meeting educational needs. This book seeks to redefine national goals at a time when public debates over education have never been more polarised--nor higher in public visibility and contentious debate. Zinn's essays on education-many never before published--are framed in this book by a dialogue between Zinn and Donaldo Macedo, a distinguished critic of literacy and schooling, whose books with Paulo Freire, Noam Chomsky and other authors have received international acclaim.

""Daniel Singer is the left's most brilliant arsonist. He sets ablaze whole forests of desiccated cliches about 'the end of history' and 'the triumph of the market' in order to light the way forward for the next generation of radical thinkers and activists."-Mike Davis An essential firsthand account of the May 1968 upheaval in France."--

Describes the reactions of the Jews of Mandatory Palestine to Nazism and the Holocaust; their ambivalent attitude to the refugees and survivors; the debate in the State of Israel over relations with Germany; the political aspects of the Kasztner libel case; the Eichmann trial; changes in the ideology governing presentation of the Holocaust, from emphasis on the ghetto fighters' heroism and rejection of the passivity of the masses to a more balanced view and mourning for the victims; the development of memorial sites such as Yad Vashem and of commemoration rituals; the treatment of the Holocaust in the educational system (including trips of young people to Auschwitz); and the constant presence of the Holocaust in the consciousness of Israelis, coloring their view of the world and affecting their reactions to all events that seem to threaten their survival.

In 1872, the Qing Empire sent 120 boys to America in the hope that they would unlock the mysteries of Western innovation. They studied at New England's finest schools, befriended luminaries such as Mark Twain and Ulysses S. Grant, and exchanged ideas with their American peers that would change the course of both nations. But when anti-Chinese fervor forced them back home, the young men faced a new set of obstacles, having to overcome a suspicious imperial court and a culture deeply resistant to change. Filled with colorful characters and vivid historical detail, this book unearths the dramatic stories of these young men who led China at the pivotal moment when it teetered between modernity and tradition.--From publisher description.

This is Laski's most important book after A Grammar of Politics . It discusses, on a grand scale, every aspect of American public life. Laski surveys American traditions and the American spirit, political institutions, the entire educational, religious, economic and social scene, America as a world power, and Americanism as a principle of civilisation. Laski's unsurpassed knowledge of American constitutional, social and cultural history is set in the perspective of his deep study of comparative constitutional history and political theory. He was one of very few people to see U.S. politics from the inside, as a result of his friendships with Roosevelt, Brandeis and Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Time to Talk, a detailed interview of Fethullah Gulen by Ekrem Dumanli, is a defense manifesto of the Hizmet Movement which has been engaged in educational activities around the world and in Turkey for five decades. The content of the talk once again confirms that the Movement, which has never been involved in any illegal activity whatsoever since its inception, expects nothing but the establishment of bridges of peace and brotherhood throughout the world. Gulen's responses to the questions on the association of the Hizmet Movement with the so-called "parallel state," the December 17 corruption investigation and many other critical inquiries eliminate the suspicions.

More than just a guide to centers of Jewish populations throughout the world, this comprehensive work provides facts about the demography and history of these important communities, as well as a listing and description of community organizations, religious life, local Jewish culture, and educational facilities. Introductory sections include information on the founding of Israel, population statistics, and thoughts on topics ranging from the Diaspora to the founding of the Jewish state.

The author of such classic works as The Republican Roosevelt, V Was for Victory, and Years of Discord, John Morton Blum is one of a small group of intellectuals who for more than a quarter of a century dominated the writing of American political history. Writing now of his own career, Blum provides a behind-the-scenes look at Ivy League education and political power from the 1940s to the 1980s. Blum insightfully recounts a long and distinguished journey that began at Phillips Academy, where he first realized he could make a career of teaching and writing history. He tells how young men were socialized to the values of the Northeastern establishment in those years before World War II, and how as a non-practicing Jew he learned to overcome bigotry both at Andover and at Harvard, which then had no Jewish professors. In 1957 Blum joined the faculty of Yale University's history department, widely regarded as the nation's best, where he became both influential and popular and where his students included one future U.S. president as well as others who aspired to the office. He reveals much about the inner workings of Ivy League education and tells of controversies over the Vietnam War and the Black Panthers, his role in Eugene McCarthy's presidential campaign, and how he searched for common ground between reactionary faculty and radical students. More than a recounting of a singular life, Blum's story explains how political history was researched and written during the second half of the twentieth century, describing how the discipline evolved, gained ascendancy, and was challenged as historical fashions changed. It also offers revealing glimpses of such prominent academics as Kingman Brewster, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., C. Vann Woodward, and William Sloan Coffin. Over a distinguished career, Blum witnessed considerable change in elite educational institutions, where minorities and women were grossly underrepresented when he first entered academia. In a memoir brimming with insight and laced with humor, he looks back at the academy—"not a refuge from reality but an alternative reality"—as he reflects upon his intellectual journey and his contributions to the study and writing of twentieth-century American history.

Bruno Kreisky (1911-1990) is undoubtedly the most prominent and influential politician to emerge in postwar Austria. For some thirty years, he helped to shape his country's politics and raise its status in the world, first as secretary of state, then as leader of the opposition Social Democratic Party and as foreign minster, and finally as chancellor from 1970 to 1983. During his long tenure of public office, Austria achieved unprecedented levels of prosperity; he promoted electoral and educational reform and weathered the occasional scandal. His analytical mind and intelligence were much appreciated by statesmen in East and West as well as in the academy, as were his deeply felt humanism, integrity, untiring advocacy of tolerance and social justice, and his earnest sense of responsibility. These won him the trust and admiration of the leading international figures of his era, including Tito, Nehru, Nasser, De Gaulle, and Pope John XXIII. His international connections and his position as leader of a non-aligned state allowed him to assume the role of honest broker in international peace, human rights, and development initiatives. His stature enabled him to play an active part in the promotion of the Arab-Israeli dialogue and pave the way for President Jimmy Carter's mediation of the Israeli-Egypt peace accord through his close relationship with Sadat. As a result of such activity, Kreisky was respected and praised by every U.S. administration from Kennedy to Brezhnev, despite his support for the containment of Soviet communism. This annotated volume - a condensed version of the three volumes of the German edition and compiled by Jill Lewis, University of Wales, and Oliver Rathkolb, Director of the Stifung Bruno Archiv - gives a fascinating insight into Kreisky's life and his many activities. He lets us participate in the big decisions in which he was involved and shares his encounters with other world leaders of this time. Austria be a small country, but it produced at least one major leader whose lively and immensely readable account and wisdom many readers will find inspiring.