After the Civil War battles at Chickamauga and Chattanooga in 1863, Weston family members are either dead, in retreat, estranged or trying to cope with widespread devastation. By 1963, the family is still struggling with the war's aftermath, starting to fracture over issues that arose a century before and destined to experience turmoil from deceit and shocking revelations. Set primarily in Chattanooga and in Atlanta, the novel showcases the region's rich historical sites and links the modern-day with the long-ago war that still resonates in the lives of many people, sometimes in hidden or mysterious ways. At the heart of the story is a Chickamauga Battlefield event that scars a series of Weston men in ways none of them understand. Finally, Rob Weston, five generations removed from the war, is forced to confront the event's role in his life and the impact on his family. Rob spends much of his life resisting anything to do with the Weston heritage and the smothering influence of his great-great-grandfather, Wilkie, a youngster during the war who never stopped passionately arguing that the South would have prevailed except for unforgivable leadership mistakes at the Battle of Chattanooga. Rob's father, Ronayne, fanatically and theatrically emulates Wilkie, adopting his Confederate perspectives, obsession with the war and - at times - his persona. Like Wilkie, Ronayne is convinced that if Major General Patrick Ronayne Cleburne, his namesake, had been given the command he deserved, the Confederacy would have survived and avoided Yankee cultural pollution. Ronayne stands apart even from those with passion for the war and the Confederacy's role in it, an apparent living relic from the century past and a source of extreme embarrassment for Rob. When Ronayne decrees that his youngest son must learn Wilkie's ways and carry on the Weston tradition, Rob rebels. But in telling his family story Rob uses Wilkie's writings to illustrate how the war has affected his life and contributed to the conflict with his father. The father-son anguish is complicated by the sweep of the Civil Rights Movement through the South. Rob openly supports black aspirations, much to Ronayne's frustration. But the problems run even deeper. While attending college in Atlanta, Rob alienates his father with the discovery of a jolting family secret. And despite his staunch segregationist upbringing, Rob develops a deep relationship with a black family. Rob defies his father in many ways, but not without an emotional price. Several women enrich, guide and sometimes bedevil Rob's life. His mother, Beth, aspires to be a country music singer and seethes silently at Ronayne's moralizing resistance, all the while playing a supporting role in his Civil War theatrics. Klari, Rob's secret mentor and kindred spirit, provides support and encouragement but also a stark and frustrating contrast to the bizarre drama of Weston family life. Rob's soul mate, Beverly, a black poet and firebrand, challenges his ideas, actions and cultural conditioning. Rob adores his unconventional wife, who creates havoc within the Weston family without even trying, but he profoundly deceives her without heed for the consequences. Traveling an emotional odyssey from adolescence through middle age, Rob gains and loses a series of important friends while also coping with family dynamics that keep his life in turmoil. Ronayne helps to drive his son away from the South, but he is instrumental in forcing Rob to confront the Civil War's complicated impact on his life. Drawn reluctantly back to the Chickamauga Battlefield, adjacent to where his life began in the Weston home, Rob distills the experiences that have brought both confusion and enlightenment. A shattering personal tragedy plunges him into an emotional abyss, and Rob, caught in the Civil War's unyielding grasp, can only emerge if he deals with the implications of an event that happened on the battlefield long ago.

A volume in The National Education Policy Center Series Series Editors: Kevin G. Welner, University of Colorado-Boulder Exploring the School Choice Universe: Evidence and Recommendations gives readers a comprehensive, complete picture of choice policies and issues. In doing so, it offers cross-cutting insights that are obscured when one looks only at single issue or a single approach to choice. The book examines choice in its various forms: charter schools, home schooling, online schooling, voucher plans that allow students to use taxpayer funds to attend private schools, tuition tax credit plans that provide a public subsidy for private school tuition, and magnet schools and other forms of public school intra- and interdistrict choice. It brings together some of the top researchers in the field, presenting a comprehensive overview of the best current knowledge of these important policies. The questions addressed in Exploring the School Choice Universe are of most importance to researchers and policy makers. What do choice programs actually do? What forms do they take? Who participates, and why? What are the funding implications? What are the results of different forms of school choice on outcomes that matter, like student performance, segregation, and competition effects? Do they affect teachers' working conditions? Do they drive innovation? The contents of this book offer reason to believe that choice policies can further some educational goals. But they also suggest many reasons for caution. If choice policies are to be evidence-based, a re-examination is in order. The information, insights and recommendations facilitate a more nuanced understanding of school choice and provide the basis for designing sensible school choice reforms that can pursue a range of desirable outcomes. Endorsements: "By far, the richest source of information on the most controversial issue in education." - Henry M. Levin, Teachers College, Columbia University. "This book is one of the few contributions to the school choice debate that recognizes the range and complexity of the issues involved and acknowledges that political judgements about the costs and benefits of choice initiatives are not straightforward. It will be of interest not only to American readers but also to those in other countries considering the adoption of similar choice policies. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who does not have a closed mind on the subject." - Geoff Whitty, Director Emeritus, Institute of Education, University of London

Exploring the School Choice Universe: Evidence and Recommendations gives readers a comprehensive, complete picture of choice policies and issues. In doing so, it offers cross-cutting insights that are obscured when one looks only at single issue or a single approach to choice. The book examines choice in its various forms: charter schools, home schooling, online schooling, voucher plans that allow students to use taxpayer funds to attend private schools, tuition tax credit plans that provide a public subsidy for private school tuition, and magnet schools and other forms of public school intra- and interdistrict choice. It brings together some of the top researchers in the field, presenting a comprehensive overview of the best current knowledge of these important policies. The questions addressed in Exploring the School Choice Universe are of most importance to researchers and policy makers. What do choice programs actually do? What forms do they take? Who participates, and why? What are the funding implications? What are the results of different forms of school choice on outcomes that matter, like student performance, segregation, and competition effects? Do they affect teachers' working conditions? Do they drive innovation? The contents of this book offer reason to believe that choice policies can further some educational goals. But they also suggest many reasons for caution. If choice policies are to be evidence-based, a re-examination is in order. The information, insights and recommendations facilitate a more nuanced understanding of school choice and provide the basis for designing sensible school choice reforms that can pursue a range of desirable outcomes.

As John Henry Newman reflected on 'The Idea of a University' more than a century and a half ago, Bradley C. S. Watson brings together some of the nation's most eminent thinkers on higher education to reflect on the nature and purposes of the American university today. They detail the life and rather sad times of the American university, its relationship to democracy, and the place of the liberal arts within it. Their mordant reflections paint a picture of the American university in crisis. But they also point toward a renewal of the university by redirecting it toward those things that resist the passions of the moment, or the pull of mere utility. This book is essential reading for thoughtful citizens, scholars, and educational policymakers.