This short history of American Education examines our nation's peculiar faith in the power of its schools to solve its various social problems. Focusing mainly on the post Civil War period, it shows how our early public school system was used in an attempt to solve such problems as racial inequality, urban decay, unemployment, and nationalization. It also shows how later problems such as overpopulation, AIDS, environmental pollution, drugs, automobile safety, crime, and cultural discrimination have been put on the school's agenda. In a new concluding section, Professor Perkinson discusses why the public schools have not solved these broad social problems and why they should not be expected to do so.