In this study Davies (St. Anne's College, Oxford) examines the growth of big government in America, focusing on the case of elementary and secondary education policy. Davies wonders how America went from a situation where four-fifths of Republicans voted against the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (because for conservatives, public education was clearly something for which the federal government had no responsibility) to the publication of A Nation at Risk by the Reagan administration, which catapulted public education to the top of the national political agenda. Davies argues that federal education aid, initially opposed by conservatives of all stripes, won broad acceptance because it required very little from states in return, and eventually acquired strong support back home and supportive lobbies in Washington. But, the fundamental changes in American government that allowed for a more assertive federal role to develop and stick, Davies argues, have their roots in the failure of massive southern resistance to desegregation. This failure undermined the broader principle of states' rights and morally legitimized the projection of federal authority over policy areas unthinkable only a generation before. This timely book adds to the growing recent scholarship on the resurgence of conservatism. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, graduate students, and research faculty. General Readers; Graduate Students; Researchers/Faculty. Reviewed by Q. Kidd. From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	1
I The Passage and Consolidation of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act
1 Race, Religion, and Reds	9
2 Making History: The Passage of ESEA	29
3 Putting Down Roots, 1965-1968	47
4 How Much? Budget Battles, 1969-1977	75
II Education and Regulatory Federalism
5 Ending Massive Resistance: The Federal Government and Southern School Desegregation, 1964-1970	109
6 Education Reform in the Nixon Administration: The Case of Bilingual Education	141
7 Transforming Special Education: The Genesis of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act	166
8 Compensatory Education through the Courts: The Politics of School Finance	194
III Education Politics in the Carter-Reagan Years
9 Teacher Power: Carter, NEA, and the Creation of the Department of Education	221
10 Education and the Reagan Revolution	246
Conclusion	277
Appendix Revenues and Expenditures for Elementary and Secondary School: Selected Years, 1955-2003	289
Notes	291
Index	375

Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.