Customer Reviews

An Aristocracy of Everyone: The Politics of Education and the Future of America

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An Aristocracy of Everyone is absolutely the best book I have read on the culture wars and its implications for education. Dr. Barber provides a reasoned and well researched critique of both the left and the right in his analysis. His main conclusion that ultimately what is lost in the debate over what is and should be taught in our schools is the fundamental lesson that an appreciation for democracy and civic engagement is the most critical outcome for our education system.

Barber, along with others such as Harry Boyte, Robert Putnam, and Robert Bellah are the key leaders in the movement to revitalize our American Democracy and the need for greater civic engagement.

This book provides the essential philosophical arguments for the civic movement that sustains the vision of Dr. King and the Civil Rights movement.

The style of "An Aristocracy of Everyone" reminds me very much of the book Dr. Barber devotes a full chapter to criticizing, Allan Bloom's Closing Of The American Mind - How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy And Impoverished The Souls Of Today's Students. A quick read it isn't- the reader should be forewarned that it gets into some fairly lengthy and somewhat esoteric philosophical discussions. Barber assumes that his audience is thoroughly familiar with not just the big name philosophers (Socrates, Plato, Nietzsche, Rousseau, etc.) but also many of the lesser ones as well. It struck me as rather too academic for a general audience but too polemical for an academic audience- like he just couldn't decide what kind of book he wanted to write.

The book is the strongest where Dr. Barber leaves aside esoteric philosophical discussions and considers some very thought-provoking questions about education and democracy. Is it possible to have an "aristocracy of everyone"? Can there be excellence in education for all, or is "dumbing down" to the lowest common denominator inevitable? How should schools balance the competing interests of pure intellectual inquiry in the humanities and basic sciences with vocational training and practical applications? How should they balance teaching the traditional literary canon with a desire to be inclusive and also relevant to their diverse students? How can schools foster community-building and civic engagement?

I don't necessarily agree with Dr. Barber's answers to these questions (after all, he is a secular liberal, I'm a moderately conservative Christian). I had to roll my eyes at all the P.C. references to race, gender, social class, etc. and the oh-so-deliberate use of "she" as the default singular pronoun. Okay, I get why he didn't want to use the masculine singular, but he could've easily re-written most of the sentences to use the gender-neutral plural "they". I also did not care for Dr. Barber's attitude towards Christianity in general and the Catholic Church in particular. The book would've been stronger had he kept a more neutral tone in that regard.

Overall, however, I am glad that I read "An Aristocracy of Everyone" and do recommend it to those who are willing to wade through all the philosophy.

I read this book years ago. I have given it as a gift many times. Every educator and administrator needs to read this.

Barber is painfully boring and his views are over the top liberal. Read it for school and would not wish reading this on my worst enemy.