Willing Warriors - by Mark Hlavacik (Hardcover)

About the Book

"How the rise of the culture wars afflicts the politics of education. On August 9, 2022, the Denton Independent School District held a meeting to address complaints about its libraries. Like so many districts in Texas and across the country, Denton had been responding to accusations that children had access to inappropriate books at school. During the public comment session, a local man stood up to the podium and read a sexually explicit passage from a book that he wanted removed from Denton's school libraries. But beguiled by the prospect of securing a political win, he had confused the title of the lurid psychological thriller he read aloud with a young adult fiction series about mermaids. While his attempt to ban a book that was never in Denton's school libraries in the first place received a few laughs, it also reflects a deeply serious and troubling culture of conflict that has taken over the politics of education and now divides people so completely as to make public education as a shared endeavor seem impossible. In Willing Warriors, Mark Hlavacik shows how the culture wars have redefined the politics of US schooling from the 1970s to the present through vivid accounts of public controversies featuring Allan Bloom, Oprah Winfrey, Lynne Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, Betsy DeVos, Nikole Hannah-Jones, and others. Beginning in the 1970s, Hlavacik shows, efforts at innovation in schooling have increasingly been met by attempts to discredit them through exposâe. As the culture wars have accelerated and exploded, this cycle of innovation and exposâe has embroiled public schools in increasingly heated debates. He explains the dynamics that make curriculum controversies so intractable and confronts the delicate question of whether raucous public arguments are bad for education. With clarity and insight, Hlavacik reveals why bitter contests between educational ideologies not only add another burden for the schools, but also for the people-the willing warriors-who devote their lives to fighting for their betterment"--

Book Synopsis

How the rise of the culture wars afflicts the politics of education.

On August 9, 2022, the Denton Independent School District held a meeting to address complaints about its libraries. Like so many districts in Texas and across the country, Denton had been responding to accusations that children had access to inappropriate books at school. During the public comment session, a local man stood up to the podium and read a sexually explicit passage from a book that he wanted removed from Denton's school libraries. But beguiled by the prospect of securing a political win, he had confused the title of the lurid psychological thriller he read aloud with a young adult fiction series about mermaids. While his attempt to ban a book that was never in Denton's school libraries in the first place received a few laughs, it also reflects a deeply serious and troubling culture of conflict that has taken over the politics of education and now divides people so completely as to make public education as a shared endeavor seem impossible.

In Willing Warriors, Mark Hlavacik shows how the culture wars have redefined the politics of US schooling from the 1970s to the present through vivid accounts of public controversies featuring Allan Bloom, Oprah Winfrey, Lynne Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, Betsy DeVos, Nikole Hannah-Jones, and others. Beginning in the 1970s, Hlavacik shows, efforts at innovation in schooling have increasingly been met by attempts to discredit them through exposé. As the culture wars have accelerated and exploded, this cycle of innovation and exposé has embroiled public schools in increasingly heated debates. He explains the dynamics that make curriculum controversies so intractable and confronts the delicate question of whether raucous public arguments are bad for education.

With clarity and insight, Hlavacik reveals why bitter contests between educational ideologies not only add another burden for the schools, but also for the people--the willing warriors--who devote their lives to fighting for their betterment.

Review Quotes

"Willing Warriors persuasively demonstrates how currently heated "culture wars" in U.S. education have been manufactured, over the course of decades, through powerful rhetorical tactics. Hlavacik's engaging case studies show how leaders across the political spectrum have contributed to the dysfunctional state of policy-making and public discourse about both the incredible promise and systemic limitations of American education. His book is a well-researched, probing, and vital addition to present-day conflicts about this critical topic."--Bradford Vivian, author of 'Campus Misinformation: The Real Threat to Free Speech in American Higher Education'

"As this book goes to press, culture wars are raging in and around our schools, turning communities against themselves and threatening the future of public education. As Mark Hlavacik shows in this timely study, we've been here before; yet we have repeatedly failed to understand these conflagrations as the work of rhetorical arsonists. Promising us empowerment, education's "willing warriors" have instead convinced us to douse the flames with fuel."--Jack Schneider, author of 'The Education Wars: A Citizen's Guide and Defense Manual'

"With a refreshingly balanced perspective, Mark Hlavacik guides us through fifty years of political showdowns, explaining why Americans are willing to fight for their schools but also helping us navigate through the 'fog' of pettiness and polarization."--Campbell F. Scribner, author of 'A is for Arson: A History of Vandalism in American Education'

About the Author

Mark Hlavacik is assistant professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism at Texas A&M University. He is the author of Assigning Blame: The Rhetoric of Education Reform.