Recommends 98 books, coded for reading level, which emphasize human relations and present original theme or fresh slant on traditional topic. Topical categories are: American history, culture and life (23 titles); world history and culture (13 titles); biographies (6 titles); folktales, storytelling, and poetry (22 titles); contemporary interests…

Reviews Carl F. Kaestle's 1983 book, "Pillars of the Republic: Common Schools and American Society, 1780-1860." Maintains that this work synthesizes and refocuses both old and new interpretations of the political and institutional history of the common school before 1860 in the United States. (JDH)

Reviews "Managers of Virtue: Public School Leadership in America, 1820-1980" (Tyack & Hansot, 1982), and "Public School in Hard Times: The Great Depression and Recent Years" (Tyack, Lowe & Hansot, 1984). Maintains that the strength of these two works lies more in their balanced synthesis of the scholarly literature than on the direct policy…