"This is a profound meditation on the most intimate connections between democracy and education. Taking his cue from John Dewey's masterwork Democracy and Education, Shook encourages his readers to consider how a vital educational agenda can foster reconstruction of the norms of justice, moral behavior, and religious belief in a time of debilitating economic and racial divisions." - Larry A. Hickman, Center for Dewey Studies, Southern Illinois University, USA "In this elegantly written and masterfully researched book, a leading contemporary pragmatist investigates how John Dewey saw education as the 'fundamental engine of democracy.' John Shook discusses Dewey's faith in the moral and ideal nature of democracy as a cooperative and communal educational venture. Democratic commitments go beyond education as simply schooling for Dewey. In a particularly brilliant chapter, Shook demonstrates how Dewey's democratic humanism, as the clear consciousness of a moral life, forms a powerful educational argument about the role of punishment in a democracy. Impassioned agents in the emerging democracies around the world can learn much from a book that describes education as far beyond simple information acquisition and even skill development but rather more a cooperative shared development of a capacity for intelligent problem-solving.

I recommend this book highly as a major accomplishment in Dewey scholarship and will assign it in my graduate classes." - AG Rud, Distinguished Professor, College of Education, Washington State University, USA.