6 x 9. 296 pgs. 5 B&W photographs and 4 drawings. (2009) Cloth 978-0-472-11700-0 $65.00S  Available Add to Cart Search this Book's Content About the Book Praise Look Inside Subjects American Studies / Education / History--American History / History--American Religious History / Law--Law and Society / Law--Legal History / Law--Supreme Court and Constitutional Law / Race and Ethnicity / Religion

Cross Purposes
Pierce v. Society of Sisters and the Struggle over Compulsory Public Education

Paula Abrams

Do parents have the right to determine how their children should be educated?

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Praise for the Book

"The view that the education of the young plays a crucial role in the development and preservation of democracy is as old as America. Just as longstanding, however, is the fear that Roman Catholicism and, later, Catholic schools threaten the nation's unity and commitments. Prof. Abrams's close, vivid history of the Supreme Court's Pierce case tells a story of how that fear was exploited in politics and incorporated into law. Hers is a careful and captivating examination of a dramatic and instructive clash between nationalism and religious pluralism, and of the ancient but ongoing struggle for control over the education of children and the formation of citizens."
—Richard W. Garnett, Professor of Law and Associate Dean, Notre Dame Law School

"A well-written, well-researched blend of law, politics, and history."
—Joan DelFattore, University of Delaware

"A definitive study of an extremely important, though curiously neglected, Supreme Court decision, Pierce v. Society of Sisters."
—Robert O'Neil, University of Virginia School of Law