A scrupulous account of an alternative education movement and a thoughtful recommendation of its principles.
In this nonfiction book, an educator explains the development of a school reform proposed by Dutch Neo-Calvinists, its theological underpinnings, and his own involvement in it.
In response to the liberal secularism that dominated the 19th century, Dutch Neo-Calvinists established an alternative education system, one in which faith and a commitment to the teachings of Jesus played a central role. The schools were designed to be largely autonomous, free of any centralized and distant bureaucratic control. There were various administrative departments, but they were comprised of parents and supporters who were mostly members of the Christian Reformed Church. Eventually, this education reform movement was exported by waves of immigrants abroad, especially to the United States beginning in 1845, and then Canada during the 1940s. Hull constructs a remarkably comprehensive history of the movement, one that lays bare not only its technical evolution and theological worldview, but also its extraordinary challenges and even missteps. The failures include the system’s inability to become an impactful agent of greater cultural transformation, one of its original motivations. Hull’s study is an “insider’s account”—he first encountered the movement when he moved to Canada in 1971, and it transformed him as a career educator. He makes a captivating argument that within this vision of school reform is the key to meeting the education challenges people face today. The microscopic detail of Hull’s history can be dizzying—he gives what can be an extremely granular account of the movement’s internecine disputes, a view conveyed with a swarm of often confusing institutional initialisms. But it is difficult to imagine a more thorough reckoning, one impressively balanced given the author’s unabashed advocacy of this education model. Finally, Hull furnishes a refreshingly deep discussion of the goals of education, one often sorely lacking in contemporary debates that typically focus on pedagogical strategy and issue “worn-out promises tied to social efficiency promoted by those committed to scientific and technological solutions to life’s biggest challenges.” Instead, he attempts to begin a dialogue about “what it means to be human, what is most worth knowing, and what constitutes the good life.” This is a valuable contribution to the contemporary conversation about education reform and what is needed to meet the demands of the future.
A scrupulous account of an alternative education movement and a thoughtful recommendation of its principles.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9781039145344
Page Count: 431
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.
A coffee-table book celebrates Michelle Obama’s sense of fashion.
Illustrated with hundreds of full-color photographs, Obama’s chatty latest book begins with some school portraits from the author’s childhood in Chicago and fond memories of back-to-school shopping at Sears, then jumps into the intricacies of clothing oneself as the spouse of a presidential candidate and as the first lady. “People looked forward to the outfits, and once I got their attention, they listened to what I had to say. This is the soft power of fashion,” she says. Obama is grateful and frank about all the help she got along the way, and the volume includes a long section written by her primary wardrobe stylist, Koop—28 years old when she first took the job—and shorter sections by makeup artists and several hair stylists, who worked with wigs and hair extensions as Obama transitioned back to her natural hair, and grew out her bangs, at the end of her husband’s second term. Many of the designers of the author’s gowns, notably Jason Wu, who designed several of her more striking outfits, also contribute appreciative memories. Besides candid and more formal photographs, the volume features many sketches of her gowns by their designers, closeups on details of those gowns, and magazine covers from Better Homes & Gardens to Vogue. The author writes that as a Black woman, “I was under a particularly white-hot glare, constantly appraised for whether my outfits were ‘acceptable’ and ‘appropriate,’ the color of my skin somehow inviting even more judgment than the color of my dresses.” Overall, though, this is generally a canny, upbeat volume, with little in the way of surprising revelations.
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593800706
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
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