PRAISE FOR PLEDGING ALLEGIANCE

"A valuable sourcebook for those who are uncertain about what patriotism is and, even more, for those who are certain that they know."

-Howard Gardner, Harvard University, author of Five Minds for the Future

"By bringing together diverse and often divergent perspectives of patriotism, Pledging Allegiance opens to critical scrutiny the very idea of loyalty to a country. In doing so, it not only offers a useful educational resource but also performs a valuable political service. I can't think of many books more likely to stimulate deep reflection and spirited discussion, and these activities, after all, are integral to democracy itself."

-Alfie Kohn, author of The Schools Our Children Deserve and What Does It Mean to Be Well Educated?

"A powerful and timely account of the struggles between authoritarian and democratic patriotism in the schools."

-David Tyack, Stanford University

"Filled with outrage and hope; brilliance and despair; history and imagined futures; Mohammed Ali, Mark Twain, and the Yankees, this volume is a must-read for educators, organizers, lawyers, youth, activists, and those who have politically fallen asleep in the twenty-first century."

-Michelle Fine, Professor, City University of New York Graduate Center

"Joel Westheimer has brought together a fine and thoughtful collection of essays that probe the perhaps inevitable but nevertheless deeply problematic role of patriotism in a democratic society."

-Frances Fox Piven, author of The War at Home and Challenging Authority

"Is patriotism compatible with democratic education or citizenship? Taking on civic educators' most enduring questions, Pledging Allegiance is a primer in how to enrich civic education for today's youth. What could be more patriotic?"

-Daniel Perlstein, UC Berkeley, author of Justice, Justice: School Politics and the Eclipse of Liberalism

"Asks hard questions about what it means to ask the most of our country-and how we can teach this in our schools. Offers strong reflections and perspectives on the fundamental stories about our country that we tell our future citizens."

-Paul Loeb, author of Soul of a Citizen

"Everybody in America should read this book, every patriot in support of war should read this book, every patriot opposed to war should read this book. Then we can talk, because then maybe we won't know the answers, but we will know what we should be talking about."

-Terri Camajani, facilitator of the Manalive Violence Prevention Program, George Washington High School, San Francisco

"Reading this splendid book will prevent you from ever taking the pledge of allegiance casually. The rituals and compulsions that bind us to national loyalties have seldom been better dissected."

-Andrew Ross, New York University, author of Fast Boat to China