In this provocative contribution to the current debate on public education in the U.S., Katznelson and Weir have traced the evolution of working-class attitudes towards public education from the earliest years of the Republic to the present day. Focusing on two major public school systems--in Chicago and San Francisco--they show how the working class has retreated from its historic political commitment to educational equality and how this transformation has affected the democratic nature of public education. The authors effectively criticize neo-conservative and radical dogmas, as well as the liberal myth of education-as-uplift, and argue persuasively that America must renew its commitment to a democratic educational system.