"This big-shouldered book, full of ardor...offers us a reasonable hope that with attention and care we can again make public education what it was meant to be, and must yet be."-The Los Angeles Times.

Possible LivesIntroduction
1. Los Angeles and the LA Basin
2. Calexico, California
3. Baltimore, Maryland
4. Chicago, Illinois
5. New York, New York
6. Berea and Wheelwright, Kentucky
7. Hattiesburg, Tupelo, Jackson, Indianola, Hollandale, and Webb, Mississippi
8. Polaris and Missoula, Montana
9. Tucson, Arizona
10. Possible Lives
A Note on Method
Notes
Acknowledgments