Homeschool: An American History

by Milton Gaither

Overview

This book provides a lively account of one of the most important and overlooked themes in American education. Beginning in the colonial period and working to the present, Gaither describes in rich detail how the home has been used as the base for education of all kinds. The last five chapters focus especially on the modern homeschooling movement and offer the most comprehensive and authoritative account of it ever written. Readers will learn how and why homeschooling emerged when it did, where it has been, and where it may be going. The second edition has been thoroughly revised to incorporate the most recent scholarship on the topic and to provide comprehensive coverage of recent trends.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349950553
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	03/05/2017
Edition description:	2nd ed. 2017
Pages:	317
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Milton Gaither is Professor of Education at Messiah College, USA. He is a founding member and co-director of the International Center for Home Education Research and has published extensively on homeschooling and other topics related to the history of US education.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Family State, 1600-1776

Chapter 2: The Family Nation, 1776-1860

Chapter 3: The Eclipse of the Fireside, 1865-1930

Chapter 4: Why Homeschooling Happened

Chapter 5: Three Homeschooling Pioneers

Chapter 6: The Changing of the Guard, 1983-1998

Chapter 7: Making it Legal

Chapter 8: The Homeschooling Movement and the Return of Domestic Education, 1998-2016

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“The best book on home education written to date. A cross-disciplinary gem. Comprehensive, deep, beautifully constructed, alive, and amazingly accessible.” (Joseph F. Murphy, Frank W. Mayborn Chair, Vanderbilt University, USA)

“This engaging and meticulously detailed history displays a breadth and depth of insight unsurpassed in the research literature on homeschooling. Gaither not only tells the story of homeschooling’s past, but explores its wider significance for education in the years ahead. With this revised edition, Gaither reinforces his status as the foremost scholar of American homeschooling, and his text is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand this compelling educational phenomenon and what it means for families, communities, and broader society.” (Robert Kunzman, Professor of Curriculum Studies and Philosophy of Education, Indiana University, USA)

Editorial Reviews

"This is a thoughtful, capacious account of what is surely among the most important educational movements of our time. Home education is not only or even primarily about the quality of children's academic instruction. It illuminates far larger problems in American society: the contradiction between home and work for contemporary mothers; disagreements about the proper place of religion in civic and political life; and the puzzle of cultural difference and its ethical accommodation in formal organizations of all kinds. Gaither understands all of this and makes it clear by locating home education within the broad coordinates of U.S. cultural history."--Mitchell L. Stevens, New York University; Author of Kingdom of Children

"Set within the broad contours of educational, religious, political, cultural, and economic history, Homeschool describes in rich detail home-based education in early America and the forces and individuals that have shaped the modern homeschool movement. General readers and scholars alike will find this finely crafted, informative, and at times provocative work an invaluable resource for understanding why a growing number of parents are choosing to teach their children at home."--James C. Carper, University of South Carolina

"While compelling quantitative research on homeschooling remains rare, quality scholarship in this area does exist. The finest example of such work is Milton Gaither's Homeschool: An American History. Besides being the best historical analysis available, Gaither's text deserves recognition as the most thoroughly researched, comprehensive look at the topic altogether." --Robert Kuzman, Books & Culture

From the Publisher