Table of Contents

Preface Acknowledgments Introduction: The Place of Diversity 1. Diversity Ascendant Public Schooling and American Citizenship 2. Civic Anxieties 3. Civic Excess and Reaction 4. The Decline of the Common School Idea 5. Civic Ends: The Dangers of Civic Totalism Liberal Civic Education and Religious Fundamentalism 6. Multiculturalism and the Religious Right 7. Diversity and the Problem of Justification 8. The Mirage of Perfect Fairness 9. Divided Selves and Transformative Liberalism School Reform and Civic Education 10. Civic Purposes and Public Schools 11. The Case for Civically Minded School Reform Conclusion: Public Reasons, Private Transformations Notes Index

Promotional Information

In this stimulating, well informed work Stephen Macedo turns to the perplexing but pivotal contemporary issues of diversity, civic identity, and civic education. The view he espouses is distinctive but sensible, and should have broad appeal. He uses historical, theoretical and policy materials deftly, and writes with an accesibility and clarity that are gifts to the reader. -- Rogers M. Smith, author of Civic Ideals : Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in U.S. History

About the Author

Stephen Macedo is the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Politics and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University.

Reviews

Macedo makes a strong case for what he calls civic liberalism, a 'tough-minded' dedication to democratic institutions and virtues... [Macedo is] often engrossing, as his trenchant analysis illuminates court cases; the history of American schools; the influence of American liberalism on Catholicism; and political thinkers from Locke to Rawls... Macedo embodies the kind of citizen he wants to shape: self-critical, respectful of opponents, and giving and demanding reasons based on shared experience. A serious...answer to the question of how to preserve a common civic life in an era of pluralism. * Kirkus Reviews *
Diversity and Distrust is a powerful book that examines closely the connections between liberalism's democratic principles and diversity, religion, and public schooling. Macedo has presented a very thoughtful analysis of what it means to craft a civil society based on shared moral principles. Macedo argues for a firm approach to democratic liberalism and diversity. He also offers a hard challenge to free-market libertarians, the religious right, parental-rights activists and multi-culturalists. -- Paulette Patterson Dilworth * Journal of Moral Education *
In this stimulating, well-informed work, Stephen Macedo turns to the perplexing but pivotal contemporary issues of diversity, civic identity, and civic education. The view he espouses is distinctive but sensible, and should have broad appeal. He uses historical, theoretical, and policy materials deftly, and writes with an accessibility and clarity that are gifts to the reader. -- Rogers M. Smith, author of Civic Ideals: Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in U.S. History