Contents -- Introduction -- I: The Common Schools 1835-1855 -- 1 The New World and the Old -- The children -- The spread of indiscipline -- Charity schools -- 2 The Ultimate Reform: The Common Schools -- The reformers -- The problem with the (unreformed) schools -- A "common" republicanism -- a "common" Protestantism -- 3 The Campaign for the Common Schools: The Enthusiasts, the Indifferent, and the Opposition -- The manufacturers and the common schools -- The workers, their organizations, and the common schools -- The campaign for school taxes: the reformers vs. the districts -- Who shall teach the children? -- 4 The Irish and the Common Schools -- The Irish: making a living, building a community -- Schools for Irish children -- The reformers' response -- 5 The Legacy of Reform-the Ideology and the Institution -- II: The High Schools 1895-1915 -- 6 The "Youth" Problem -- The invention of "adolescence": G. Stanley Hall -- The "bad boys": who were they? -- The adolescent and the law -- Child-saving -- The "youth" problem as a "class" problem -- 7 The War Against the Wards -- The call to battle -- Business leads the charge -- 8 Reforming the High Schools -- "Youth" problems, "class" problems, and some early attempts to solve them -- High schools and white collars -- The high schools: a new weapon in the battle for exports and against the unions -- Industrial schooling: for whom? -- 9 New Studies for New Students -- Industrial schooling for the "plain people" -- Differentiation: the new democracy in secondary schooling -- The new students: what they wanted, what they got -- Social efficiency in secondary schooling -- 10 Reaction, Resistance, and the Final Compromise -- The union response -- The "plain people's" response -- The educators' response -- Secondary schooling: for industrial efficiency or for democracy?.

The final compromise: the comprehensive high school -- III: Higher Education 1945-1970 -- 11 Between the World Wars: To School or to Work? -- High School: for whom? -- College: for whom? -- 12 One Depression Cured, Another Prevented: Planning for War and Postwar -- Fighting the war the American way -- The G.I. Bill -- 13 In the "National Interest": The Private Universities in Postwar -- From World War to Cold War: the state and the corporation -- The R&D explosion -- Of research and education -- New funds and functions -- 14 A "Rising Tide" of Students: the Public Sector -- Fewer "good" jobs and more job hunters -- Postwar plans and planners: new goals for higher education -- The "tidal wave" approaches -- Of plans and planners -- 15 The "Tidal Wave" Contained-Open Admissions -- Open admissions: for whom? -- Open admissions: to where? and why? -- The higher education pyramid -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z.