Chrys Dougherty.
Asking the Right Questions About Schools: A Parents' Guide.
Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2002.
ISBN: 0-8108-4179-7

(Book information at Amazon.com, the Publisher.)

Chrys Dougherty is Director of Research at the National Center for Educational Accountability, affiliated with The University of Texas at Austin. One of the NCEA's major efforts is the Just for the Kids web site, which displays very detailed student achievement data for public primary and secondary schools around the USA. The design of the data presentations is primarially due to Dr. Dougherty. Within its field, the Just for the Kids web site may be the most comprehensive data source available. I encourage any parent considering a public school for their child to examine that data.

Dr. Dougherty's book is a practical guide for parents of children attending any type of school, public or private. He is relentlessly focused on encouraging parents, students, and educators to persue the highest standards in education. His book shows, in very practical terms, how to direct and motivate schools, parents, and students to obtain the best education possible for students.

Some recommended books on education policy issues:

• The Schools We Need: And Why We Don't Have Them, by E. D. Hirsch, Jr.


• We Must Take Charge: Our Schools and Our Future, by Chester E. Finn

Marcus Aurelius (121-180).
The Emperor's Handbook: A New Translation of The Meditations.
Translated by C. Scot Hicks and David V. Hicks.
New York: Scribner (Simon & Schuster), 2002.

(Book information at Amazon.com.)

This is not the kind of book one reads only once.

David Brooks.
On Paradise Drive: How We Live Now (And Always Have) in the Future Tense.
New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004.

(Book information at Amazon.com.)

For an interesting commentary on David Brooks' work see: "The Limits of the American Utopian Imagination: Reflections on David Brooks, Poet of Our Middle Class" by Peter Augustine Lawler here.

David Brooks.
Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There.
New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.

(Book information at Amazon.com.)

Henry Adams (1838 - 1918).
History of the United States of America During the Administrations of James Madison (1809-1817).
New York: The Library of America, 1986.
Volume 32 in the Series.

Publisher's web page for this book; Amazon.com.

Claremont Review of Books, Volume IV, Number 4, Fall 2004.

David Frum.
The Right Man: The Suprise Presidency of George W. Bush.
New York: Random House, 2003.

A highly readable portrait of George Bush as President. Discusses events until Summer 2002, so although the book contains behind-the-scenes insight into decision making related to 9/11, Afghanistan and the policy that led to Iraq, for a full picture of the Iraq decisions you'll have to look elsewhere.

Claremont Review of Books, Volume IV, Number 2, Spring 2004.

Claremont Review of Books, Volume IV, Number 3, Summer 2004.

This issue contains several essays and book reviews centered around the topic(s) of the 14th Amendment, Brown v. Board of Education (1954), and the judicial policy-making instigated by the Warren and Burger courts (properly a Legislative function). I find especially noteworthy the essay by Michael M. Uhlmann The Road Not Taken: Brown v. Board of Education at 50.

David Horowitz.
Left Illusions: An Intellectual Odyssey. (Publisher's page, Amazon.com.)
Dallas: Spence Publishing Company, 2003.

A uniquely comprehensive survey of American politics of the last 40 or 50 years.

David Horowitz:

• FrontPage magazine.com, the online magazine of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture.


• His blog.

About David Horowitz:

• The Right Turn of David Horowitz by Stephen Goode at Insight on the News (includes a fine review of Left Illusions), 26 January 2004.


• David Horowitz's Long March by Scott Sherman at The Nation (a leftist view of Horowitz, its latter pages taking on the aspect of a hit piece), 15 June 2000.