This book offers a groundbreaking examination of citizenship education programs that serve contemporary youth in schools and communities across the United States. These programs include social studies classes and curricula, school governance, and community-based education efforts. The book takes an interdisciplinary approach to exploring the experiences and perspectives of educators and youth involved in these civic education efforts. The contributors offer rich analyses of how mainstream and alternative programs are envisioned and enacted, and the most important factors that shape them. A variety of theoretical lenses and qualitative methodologies are used, including ethnography, focus group interviews, and content analyses of textbooks. This book begins with a foreword by Walter C. Parker. Chapters include: (1) Introduction: Studying Citizenship Education in Troubled Times (Judith L. Pace and Janet S. Bixby); (2) Teaching for Citizenship in 12th Grade Government Classes (Judith L. Pace); (3) Connecting Diversity, Justice, and Democratic Citizenship: Lessons from an Alternative U.S. History Class (Anand R. Marri); (4) Urban Youth and the Construction of Racialized and Classed Political Identities (Kysa Nygreen); (5) Service-Learning as a Promising Approach to High School Civic Engagement (Susan Root and Shelley H. Billig); (6) Democracy's Practice Grounds: The Role of School Governance in Citizenship Education (Richard Battistoni); (7) Civic Development in Context: The Influences of Local Contexts on High School Students' Beliefs about Civic Engagement (Ellen Middaugh and Joseph Kahne); (8) Examining the Treatment of 9/11 and Terrorism in High School Textbooks (Diana Hess, Jeremy Stoddard, and Shannon Murto); (9) Engaging Urban Youth in Civic Practice: Community-Based Youth Organizations as Alternative Sites for Democratic Education (Jennifer O'Donoghue and Ben Kirshner); (10) To Think, Live, and Breathe Politics: Experiencing Democratic Citizenship in Chicago (Janet S. Bixby); and (11) Epilogue: Citizenship Education in Diverse Settings: Findings, Tensions, and Future Research (Judith L. Pace).