This comprehensive and up-to-date history of American education encourages critical thinking by offering alternative interpretations of each major historical period. It shows how educational history is nested within and shaped by the larger forces, including mass media, that shape the dissemination of knowledge and power within society. Discussions by other scholars and everyday citizens are integrated to help contextualize the narrative. New chapters in this edition describe and analyze the social, political, and economic forces behind the policies that govern how African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, Mexican Americans, and Puerto Ricans have been and are being educated in the United States. An expanded analysis examines the role of mass media; and current discussions consider issues such as national standards, school choice, and equal education. Chapter 6, "Education as Deculturalization: Native Americans and Puerto Ricans," and chapter 7, "Education and Segregation: Asians, African Americans, and Mexican Americans," highlight issues of concern in a discussion of urban schools, as does chapter 13, "The Great Civil Rights Movement." Chapter 14, "Education and National Policy," considers the cold war and the war on poverty and their effects on national educational policy. (SLD)