Tough Liberal: Albert Shanker and the Battles Over Schools, Unions, Race, and Democracy.: Richard D. Kahlenberg: 9780231134965: Amazon.com: Books

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Richard D. Kahlenberg

Tough Liberal: Albert Shanker and the Battles Over Schools, Unions, Race, and Democracy. Hardcover – Illustrated, August 16, 2007

by Richard D. Kahlenberg (Author)

5.0 15 ratings

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In Woody Allen's 1973 film, Sleeper, a character wakes up in the future to learn that civilization was destroyed when "a man by the name of Albert Shanker got hold of a nuclear warhead." Shanker was condemned by many when he shut down the New York City school system in the bitter strikes of 1967 and 1968, and he was denounced for stirring up animosity between black parents and Jewish teachers. Later, however, he built alliances with blacks, and at the time of his death in 1997, such figures as Bill Clinton celebrated Shanker for being an educational reformer, a champion of equality, and a promoter of democracy abroad.

Shanker lived the lives of several men bound into one. In his early years, he was the "George Washington of the teaching profession," helping to found modern teacher unionism. During the 1980s, as head of the American Federation of Teachers, he became the nation's leading education reformer. Shanker supported initiatives for high education standards and accountability, teacher-led charter schools, and a system of "peer review" to weed out inadequate teachers. Throughout his life, Shanker also fought for "tough liberalism," an ideology favoring public education and trade unions but also colorblind policies and a robust anticommunismall of which, Shanker believed, were vital to a commitment to democracy.

Although he had a coherent worldview, Shanker was a complex individual. He began his career as a pacifist but evolved into a leading defense and foreign policy hawk. He was an intellectual and a populist; a gifted speaker who failed at small talk; a liberal whose biggest enemies were often on the left; a talented writer who had to pay to have his ideas published; and a gruff unionist who enjoyed shopping and detested sports. Richard D. Kahlenberg's biography is the first to offer a complete narrative of one of the most important voices in public education and American politics in the last half century. At a time when liberals are accused of not knowing what they stand for, Tough Liberal illuminates an engaging figure who suggested an alternative liberal path.

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Print length

552 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Columbia University Press
Publication date

August 16, 2007
Dimensions

6.58 x 1.55 x 9.52 inches
ISBN-10

0231134967
ISBN-13

978-0231134965
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Century Foundation senior fellow Kahlenberg, who has written previously about the public school wars (All Together Now), paints a gripping portrait of the iconoclastic and often contradictory teacher's union leader Albert Shanker (1928–1997). Born to working-class Russian-Jewish parents on New York's Lower East Side, Shanker worked on a doctorate in philosophy at Columbia by night while teaching by day in East Harlem. During the late '50s he was involved in organizing New York City's United Federation of Teachers, becoming its president in 1964. In 1974 he also became president of the national American Federation of Teachers. In this perceptive biography, Kahlenberg shows that the firebrand union militant who led illegal strikes that closed New York City's public schools in 1967 and 1968 was at the same time a forward-looking educational reformer who, despite pronounced liberal credentials, pushed initiatives that are today associated mostly with conservative educational agendas. Among Shanker's passions were lofty standards, teacher accountability and charter schools. Kahlenberg applauds all this, along with Shanker's fervent anticommunism and his many efforts—regardless of the black-Jewish antagonism the school strikes engendered—to reach out to people of color. The reader comes away admiring a man who navigated troubled times deftly and left behind a record of great accomplishment. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

This book is a must-read for those interested in educational or labor history. ― Historian

A thoroughly researched and engaging biography. -- Arch Puddington ― The Wall Street Journal

[A] fascinating biography. -- Sol Stern ― City Journal

At once exquisitely complex and grandly contextual. -- Martin Peretz ― The New Republic

A well-drawn portrait. -- Scott McLemee ― Newsday

Judicious and engaging. -- Fred Siegel ― Weekly Standard

[A] timely new biography. -- Sara Mosle ― Slate

An engaging book, and essential reading for anyone interested in the history of Cold War liberalism and its complicated legacy. -- Scott McLemee ― Inside Higher Ed

An excellent new biography. -- Jal Mehta ― American Prospect

A must read for unionists, educators, politicians and democracy internationalists trying to make sense of the persistent failings of U.S. education. -- Eugenia Kemble ― Democratiya

A spirited and readable biography. -- Adam Fairclough ― Washington Post

Named one of the American School Board Journal's must-reads of the year. ― American School Board Journal

[This book] is an important contribution to the history of American education reform. -- Nathan Glazer ― Education Next

An important new biography. ― The Politico

A must-read for those interested in educational or labor history. ― Historian

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Columbia University Press; Illustrated edition (August 16, 2007)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 552 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0231134967
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0231134965
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.58 x 1.55 x 9.52 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,937,857 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,713 in Labor & Industrial Relations (Books)
- #2,034 in Educator Biographies
- #2,038 in Labor & Industrial Economic Relations (Books)

Customer Reviews:
5.0 15 ratings

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Richard D. Kahlenberg

Richard D. Kahlenberg

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Richard D. Kahlenberg is Director of Housing Policy and Director of the American Identity Project at the Progressive Policy Institute and a professorial lecturer at George Washington University's Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration. He was recently featured in a front-page New York Times profile on his policy work as a "liberal maverick."

The author or editor of 19 books, Kahlenberg has been called “arguably the nation’s chief proponent of class-based affirmative action in higher education admissions” and “the intellectual father of the economic integration movement” in K–12 schooling.

His articles have been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the Atlantic; and he has appeared on ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, MSNBC, PBS, and NPR.

His books include: Class Matters: The Fight to Get Beyond Race Preferences, Reduce Inequality, and Build Real Diversity at America's Colleges (PublicAffairs Books, 2025); Excluded: How Snob Zoning, NIMBYism, and Class Bias Build the Walls We Don't See (PublicAffairs Books, 2023); Tough Liberal: Albert Shanker and the Battles Over Schools, Unions, Race and Democracy (Columbia University Press, 2007); and The Remedy: Class, Race and Affirmative Action (1996). The Remedy was named one of the best books of the year by the Washington Post, Tough Liberal was named one of the best books written on labor unions by the Wall Street Journal; and Excluded won the Goddard Riverside Book Prize for Social Justice.

He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School.

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Great book.
Reviewed in the United States on August 16, 2010
Verified Purchase
Great book. If you're interested in the state of American schools, and if you're one of those people who blame everything on teachers' unions (or you're just surrounded by those people), you MUST read this book.

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Quill
More Than a Bio
Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2008
In his film, Sleeper, Woody Allen immortalized Albert Shanker as the madman responsible for blowing up the world. That helped to get Shanker known outside of NY, but clearly it wasn't the real Shanker. In this highly readable and often exhilarating biography of Shanker, Richard Kahlenberg shows that while Shanker, the architect of the modern teacher union movement (and, it turns out, so much more) surely understood power and accumulated it, his only "madness" was to seek to empower the powerless and to hold this nation to the democratic ideals it espoused and he so cherished. Indeed, far from being "mad," Shanker was both intellectually and politically brilliant -- a rare combination -- an idealist with both a shrewd and compassionate understanding of human nature and a pragmatist who nonetheless stood firm on principles, a stance that sometimes incurred the enmity of allies as much as enemies. This was also a man who dealt with the high and mighty, but who in his writing and speaking could take the most complicated ideas and make them accessible to ordinary people without ever dumbing anything down. Had Kahlenberg just written a biography of this complex and far-ranging man, that probably would have been interesting enough. But Kahlenberg goes further and roots Shanker in the major political and cultural struggles over the soul of the Democratic party and the direction of this country. Regardless of one's view of those struggles and their outcomes, Kahlenberg's recounting of them cannot help but make you think of missed opportunities and "what ifs" to this day. Politics, race, education, the meaning and practice of democracy -- a heady and vitally critical brew. And Kahlenberg stirs and blends this pot well through Shanker, his meaty main ingredient.

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Blaine Greenfield
Made me appreciate Shanker even more!
Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2008
Albert Shanker had always been one of my heroes . . . yet until
I read TOUGH LIBERAL by Richard D. Kahlenberg, I had not known
too much about him.

That's no longer the case . . . in fact, this excellent biography even
increased my appreciation of Shanker who once told an interviewer:
* "If I didn't have to make a living, I would have done this as a volunteer."

What he did was head the American Federation of Teachers for
well over 20-25 years . . . by doing so, he helped change the
perception of teachers by having them recognized as professionals:

* A professional receives a liberal-arts education, then specialized
training, and then must pass a rigorous exam before beginning
to practice. She participates in an internship, is guided by mentors,
and participates in reviewing the performance of colleagues. Once these
professional responsibilities are met come the reciprocal set of rights:
greater autonomy and higher compensation. In Shanker's vision,
policies like a rigorous national test, peer review, and career
ladders were not just defensive moves against critics
of public-school teachers, they were prerequisites
to the professionalization of teaching.

TOUGH LIBERAL summarized Shanker's contributions to
education in one of the finest concluding paragraphs that I've
ever read:

* In one lifespan, Albert Shanker helped to create the institution
of collective bargaining for teachers, giving them greater dignity
and voice in how they would be treated. He then used that power
to engage in a series of critical education reforms that proved
instrumental in improving and preserving the institution of public
education. Both accomplishments served the larger goal he cherished
above all others: strengthening American democracy. His failure
to convince fellow liberals to extend their support of democracy more
broadly--to racial policy, international affairs, and their views of the labor
movement--leaves open the question: what might society look like
if we tried?

If you want to learn about Albert Shanker and the labor movement in
this country, read this book . . . it will also make a great gift for any
teacher.

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5 people found this helpful

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AmericanDreamer
Lively Biography About an Influential Public Figure of Enduring Relevance to Our Times
Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2009
I'm guessing most readers of this review who are under 40 years old or who live outside the greater New York city area have not heard of Albert Shanker, the subject of this lively biography by Richard Kahlenberg. That's unfortunate. Agree or disagree with his views, Shanker was an articulate, dynamic and controversial teachers' union founder and leader who was also an important and interesting opinion leader on issues such as national standards and charter schools which are very much a part of today's education policy debates. Kahlenberg's book tells his story, explaining as well how Shanker's politics--encompassing issues going well beyond education policy--represented a road not taken by liberalism in the United States, for the worse in Kahlenberg's view.

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3 people found this helpful

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Kirk
Classic Larry Townsend
Reviewed in the United States on May 31, 2012
Larry Townsend is one of the outstanding authors of M/M erotic literature and his books comprise a classic library of the genre. This book highlights his particular interest in BDSM. If you are interested in this subject, you will not be disappointed in this book.

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Michael Barlow
Honest Portrayal
Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2008
Al was my mentor in the 1970's and this is an honest and true representation of the man I knew. There will never be another like him.

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