A Blacklist Education

"The year Jane S. Smith entered kindergarten, the Red Scare came for her father, a talented teacher whose only crime was to believe that public schools ought to be fair and just. In her moving new book, Smith sets her father's story inside a searing history of those dangerous times, which bear a terrifying resemblance to our own." - Kevin Boyle (author of The Shattering: America in the 1960s) "With uncanny timing, acclaimed author Jane S. Smith recently discovered her deceased father's long-hidden wound: as a devoted teacher, he was driven from his calling by the 'fear profiteers' of the McCarthy era. A Blacklist Education is a must-read for anyone seeking to make sense of the venomous attacks on educators in our time-and for all those who appreciate a well-told detective tale." - Nancy MacLean (author of Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America) "In this chilling and timely investigation of her father's experience as a New York City public school teacher blacklisted for his political beliefs, Smith meticulously uncovers a family mystery-personal, political, and searing in its resonance. A Blacklist Education is gorgeous and sad; as it turns out, it is also very urgent." - Rebecca Traister (author of Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger) "A beautifully written account of Smith's discovery of the impact of McCarthyism on her father, forced to resign his position as a New York City school teacher because of his early political affiliations. The book reads like a mystery as Smith plumbs the archives to uncover a long-held family secret. Part memoir, part historical account, A Blacklist Education has striking resonance with the attacks on education we are witnessing today." - Joan W. Scott (Institute for Advanced Study)