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Rating: 
Summary: Putting a landmark case in context
Review: This book looks at the case of Brown vs. Board of Education that outlawed segregation in schools 50 years ago this month. The actual case only takes up several chapters in the middle of the book. What is important is that the book tries to put the case in terms of legal, and societal, context. Chapters leading up speak about the legal challenges to segregation that appeared in the 50 prior years since Plessy v. Ferguson enshrined the doctrine of "separate but equal" in our nation's laws. Because law is built upon precedence, these cases mark the stones on which the group of cases, eventually to be grouped under Brown, would stand. The authors take us inside the Supreme Court and helps analyze the decision making process, and examine the subsequent practices and pitfalls of the implementation of that decision. It is a case that even a half century later the repercussions are still felt in America. This is not a scintillating read. The focus is on the law and the legal actions leading up to and after the decision. But it is an excellent book to put this event into legal context.
Rating: 
Summary: Government racism in government schools.
Review: This is a fascinating book, but it needs more info on Brown v Board of Education (May 17, 1954; the 50 year anniversary is near) that stopped government's massive racism imposed on everyone by government schools.
The book (and the Brown decision itself) ignores how government schools started the problem that Brown ended. When government began socializing schools in the late 1800's, it expanded government-mandated racism. Even the Pledge of Allegiance (1892) was written by a bigot who was a self-proclaimed national socialist and advocated that government should operate all schools. The government forced children to attend segregated schools where they recited the Pledge using it's original straight-arm salute. The book doesn't attempt to quantify the monstrous impact of government schools teaching racism for so long. It is fortunate that the Constitution prevented government churches, or the same tragedy would have resulted. In addition to ending government's racism, Brown should have ended government schools. The separation of school and state is as important as the separation of church and state.
Rating:
Summary: Good book, but does not focus on Brown v. Board of Education
Review: When one sees the title "Brown v. Board of Education", it immediately stirs up notions of a Supreme Court case involving desegregation of public schools in America. Robert Cottol, Raymond Diamond, and Leland Ware have given us some of that feel, but not enough in this book. The book, only 240+ pages to start with, does not even touch on the Brown case (or any of the six cases that collectively were referred to as "Brown") until page 119. The first half of the book is spent exploring the history of segregation in education and in America as a whole. I believe that this is an important topic, but not of enough importance to require half of a book that is supposed to be about this one Supreme Court case. Aside from the fact that there is little in the book that deals with the case itself (besides the history of segregation in education, there is a substantial section of the book that deals with direct ramifications of ordered desegregation and the reactions of state and local governments to this order), the book is well written. I enjoyed reading the book, but I think that I would refer readers to a broader history of the Supreme Court and interventions in race relations, such as the new Klarman book "From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality" instead of this book. If, however, one is looking for a consice book that does indeed provide the story of segregation in American education, including the historic decision in 1954 that abolished that segregation, this is a great book to read and understand.
Rating:
Summary: Good book, but does not focus on Brown v. Board of Education
Review: When one sees the title "Brown v. Board of Education", it immediately stirs up notions of a Supreme Court case involving desegregation of public schools in America. Robert Cottol, Raymond Diamond, and Leland Ware have given us some of that feel, but not enough in this book. The book, only 240+ pages to start with, does not even touch on the Brown case (or any of the six cases that collectively were referred to as "Brown") until page 119. The first half of the book is spent exploring the history of segregation in education and in America as a whole. I believe that this is an important topic, but not of enough importance to require half of a book that is supposed to be about this one Supreme Court case. Aside from the fact that there is little in the book that deals with the case itself (besides the history of segregation in education, there is a substantial section of the book that deals with direct ramifications of ordered desegregation and the reactions of state and local governments to this order), the book is well written. I enjoyed reading the book, but I think that I would refer readers to a broader history of the Supreme Court and interventions in race relations, such as the new Klarman book "From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality" instead of this book. If, however, one is looking for a consice book that does indeed provide the story of segregation in American education, including the historic decision in 1954 that abolished that segregation, this is a great book to read and understand.
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