There could not possibly be a better time to rediscover the classic work that taught a generation to interrogate and challenge the economic forces and corporate predations that betray the democratic possibilities of public education. This powerful book is more relevant today than when it first aroused the outrage and the passion of the nation thirty years ago. I hope that it will reinforce the battle to resist coarseness and vulgarity of those efficiency technicians and business-minded technocrats in Washington who are riding high now in their efforts to establish uniformity, subservience, utility, and intellectual conformity as the guiding principals of public education. The sweep and brilliance of this work is the perfect antidote to toxic and misguided policies that are anti-child, anti-intellect, anti-egalitarian, and which need to be denounced, defied, and fearlessly rejected. As such, it deserves a wider readership than ever.