MARC Record from Harvard University

LEADER: 03307pam a2200313 a 4500
001 002693879-0
005 20020606093309.7
008 920416s1992 nyu b 001 0 eng
010 $a 92053157
020 $a0345370406 :$c$20.00 ($25.00 Can.)
035 0 $aocm26158813
040 $aDLC$cDLC$dDLC
043 $an-us---
050 00 $aLA217.2$b.B37 1992
082 00 $a370/.973$220
100 1 $aBarber, Benjamin R.,$d1939-
245 13 $aAn aristocracy of everyone :$bthe politics of education and the future of America /$cBenjamin R. Barber.
250 $a1st ed.
260 $aNew York :$bBallantine Books,$c1992.
300 $a307 p. ;$c25 cm.
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. 287-291) and index.
505 0 $aTeaching temporality -- To be an American -- Loose canons -- Radical excesses and post-Modernism -- Conservative excesses and Allan Bloom -- What our forty-seven-year-olds know -- Teaching democracy through community service.
520 1 $a"Until now, the current crisis in education has been defined by controversy over what should be taught, who should be taught, and, increasingly who should pay for it. What is less discussed is what these questions mean for the future of our country our society, and our very value system, the basis of which is democracy. In this brilliant, controversial, and profoundly original book, Benjamin R. Barber fundamentally alters the terms of the current debate over the value of opportunity in American education, politics, and culture." "In An Aristocracy of Everyone, Barber argues that the fashionable rallying cries of cultural literacy and political correctness completely miss the point of what is wrong with our society. While we fret about "the closing of the American mind" we utterly ignore the closing of American schools. While we worry about being edged out by Japanese technology we fall to tap the more fundamental ideological resources on which our country was founded. As Barber argues, the future of America lies not in competition but in education. Education in America can and must embrace both democracy and excellence." "But how can this goal be achieved? Barber explodes the notion that the so-called canon of accepted history and literary texts is a monolithic structure and demonstrates persuasively that our national story has always comprised an intermingling of diverse, contradictory, often subversive voices. Multiculturalism has, from the very start, defined America. From his gripping portrait of America poised on the brink of unprecedented change, Barber offers a daringly original program for effecting change: for teaching democracy depends not only on the preeminence of education but on a resurgence of true community service."
520 8 $a"A ringing challenge to the complacency, cynicism, and muddled thinking of our time, An Aristocracy of Everyone will stand as a watershed volume In American Intellectual history. It will change the way you feel about being an American citizen."--Jacket.
650 0 $aEducation$xAims and objectives$zUnited States.
650 0 $aEducational change$zUnited States.
776 08 $iOnline version:$aBarber, Benjamin R., 1939-$tAristocracy of everyone.$b1st ed.$dNew York : Ballantine Books, 1992$w(OCoLC)697941673
988 $a20020608
906 $0DLC