Democracy and Intolerance

the long version

Frances R.A. Paterson provides a thought-provoking and timely study of the contents of textbooks published specifically for private Christian schools. She draws connections between the textbooks' content and the religious, social, and political agendas of the Religious Right. The secularization of the public schools has stimulated the rise of Christian schools and home schooling based on conservative religious and political views. Such schools are a growing force in American education. In some ways, the emergence of these conservative, religious-political education alternatives mirrors the 19th-century rise of the common school and diminished influence of church schools. In the 21st century, it is public schools that are in danger of being disestablished. - Back cover.