War That Wasn't

Benjamin Justice is Assistant Professor of Education and History at Rutgers University.

"…Benjamin Justice's The War That Wasn't … provides an original interpretation of the role of religion in American public schools and offers bountiful evidence to support this new analysis. Justice is to be commended for the contribution he has made to religion and education history. Simply put, the book is a must read." — Teachers College Record"Exploiting sources never before consulted, Benjamin Justice explodes a number of long-cherished 'truths' regarding religious conflict, local control, and the nature of nineteenth-century common schools. He moves the focus of inquiry from the overheated rhetoric of national discourse to the local level, examining how questions of Bible reading, religious exercises, and public support for sectarian education were acted upon in the thousands of school districts of New York State. His findings are surprising and exciting; they also raise a host of new questions about the many faces of democracy and the forms of social and political life we lost many decades ago. Best of all, Justice commits his iconoclastic revisionism with modesty, humor, and grace." — Ronald E. Butchart, coeditor of Classroom Discipline in American Schools: Problems and Possibilities for Democratic Education"Justice provides a nuanced and sophisticated revision of the warfare thesis that has governed writing about religion and public education in nineteenth-century America. In doing so, he avoids the trap of consensus theory by arguing instead that common schools succeeded in mediating religious conflict." — Gregory L. Kaster, Gustavus Adolphus College

• List of Tables and Figures Acknowledgments Preface 1. Explaining the History of Religion in Public Schools Part 1: Origins of the Public School "System" 2. Democracy Trumps Theocracy: The Civil Origins of the Common School System in New York3. Religion in Post-Bellum State and Local School Governance Part 2: Religion and District School s 4. Politics, Religion, and District Schooling 5. Religious Use of the District Schoolhouse 6. Religious Exercises in District Schools Part 3: Religion and Urban Schools 7. Local Control, Religion, and Urban Schooling 8. Religious Exercises in Urban Schools 9. Public Funds for Religious Schools 10. Conclusion: Explanations and Implications Notes Bibliography of Primary Works Cited Index