Reese, William J. America’s Public Schools: From the Common School to "No Child Left Behind.” Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press, 2011.

Summary
This book synthesizes a range of secondary books on American education history and examines two related phenomena: the persistent attempts to reform society through schools, and the ongoing battles within schools to alter their organization, curriculum teaching practices, and purposes. Reese argues that schooling has always been the battleground for shaping society. Americans have agreed that schooling and education should be a tool to improve society; yet, they have rarely agreed on how.