Who should have the authority to shape the education of citizens in a democracy? This is the central question posed by Amy Gutmann in the first book-length study of the democratic theory of education. The author tackles a wide range of issues, from the democratic case against book banning to the role of teachers’ unions in education, as well as the vexed questions of public support for private schools and affirmative action in college admissions.
Amy Gutmann is Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor and founding director of the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. Her books include Freedom of Association and, with Anthony Appiah, Color Conscious: The Political Morality of Race (both books available from Princeton) and, with Dennis Thompson, Democracy and Disagreement.
"The finest contribution to the literature on democratic education of the last seventy years."—Mark Yudof, Ethics
"A small masterpiece of political theory with implications far beyond the educational context."—Suzanna Sherry, University of Texas Law Review
"Gutmann has created a theory of extraordinary coherence, comprehensiveness, and depth."—Alison M. Jaggar, The Philosophical Review
"Dr. Gutmann attempts to construct a democratic theory of education with great conceptual clarity and good common sense.... Democratic Education belongs in a liberal tradition that goes back to the birth of the Republic.... It is a tradition that began with the founders and is represented today by people like Thomas Nagel and John Rawls. It is the America de Tocqueville celebrated."—The Times Higher Education Supplement
"Amy Gutmann has written a courageous book.... One of Gutmann's most remarkable successes is her ability to sustain a principled argument through a dazzling range of issues of great moment and complexity."—Herbert M. Kliebard, Academe
"[Democratic Education] is unusual in offering a specifically political theory of education.... [The theory] is rigorously deployed and its practical implications are conscientiously demonstrated in close, well-documented and instructive discussion of controversial issues in the politics of American education."—Jean Floud, The Times Literary Supplement
