Academic Distinctions is the most sustained and rigorous critique of radical sociology of school knowledge and its major figures to date. Using a variety of theoretical lenses to analyze and reconstitute the field--structuralist, poststructuralist and feminist--James Ladwig documents how the so-called "new sociologists of education" lost their theoretical way and failed to realize their educational goals.

Academic Distinctions is the most sustained and rigorous critique of radical sociology of school knowledge and its major figures to date. Using a variety of theoretical lenses to analyze and reconstitute the field--structuralist, poststructuralist and feminist--James Ladwig documents how the so-called "new sociologists of education" lost their theoretical way and failed to realize their educational goals.