by Marita Golden.

New York: Doubleday, 1995. 190 pp. $18.50.

The daily death toll recorded on the pages of the Washington Post is controlled by a mysterious, primal, almost gothic aesthetic. The accounts of young Black males shot over a look, an imagined slight, turf, a girl, become a kind of literature, a never-ending, fascinating, horrible, unfolding saga. I yearn for the stories to end, yet find myself reading them obsessively, in search of a new tale, a new death. (p. 83)

When I was a child, I often sat with my grandmother as she read the morning newspaper. She inevitably turned to the obituary section first, and I, with the arrogance of the young, would tease her about it. But what she was doing was taking an account of old friends lost; perhaps she was also counting down the days to the end of her time. "Lord, Lord, Lord" she would say, "old Miss Rose died." Day after day it was the same, an accounting of those lost to us, a kind of death watch.

Marita Golden, in Saving our Sons: Raising Black Children in a Turbulent World, is on a death watch of a different sort. Counting the deaths of those lost in youth is very different from counting the deaths of those who have had a chance to live a long life, who have had a chance to savor the good and the bad that life brings, and who have had a chance to provide a thread from the old to the new to link one generation to the next. What is lost when we lose our young?

Miss Golden's death watch has an immediacy and cogency because she is the mother of a Black adolescent male. In her words:

As the mother of a Black son, I have raised my child with a trembling hand that clutches and leads. I am no slave mother, my sleep plundered by images of the auction block. I dream instead of my son slaying the statistics that threaten to ensnare and cripple him, statistics that I know are a commentary on the odds for my son, who isn't dead or in jail. And though I have paved a straight and narrow path for my son to tread, always there is the fear that he will make a fatal detour, be seduced, or be hijacked by a White or Black cop, or a young Black predator, or a Nazi skinhead, or his own bad judgment, or a weakness that even I as his mother cannot love or punish or will out of him. (p. 7)

The statistics to which Miss Golden refers are daunting. In the three-year period from 1987 to 1990, "nearly fifteen hundred people, most of them Black males of all ages, were killed in Washington, DC" (p. 92), the author's home town. Nationally, homicide is the leading cause of death among Black males between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four. Her son Michael is fifteen.She recounts a conversation with a friend, who is a counselor, some ten years earlier in which the friend told her that twenty-one was the most vulnerable age for young men -- "it's like if they can get past twenty-one they'll make it" (p. 93). A chilling thought.

Because it is a personal account of a Black mother's concern for her son's safety, Marita Golden's book puts a human face on the statistics that we read. And frankly, on a personal level, I share her concerns. Though not a mother, I have two beloved male cousins, ages nineteen and twenty-one, for whose safety I constantly fear. Like Washington, DC, New Orleans, my home town, has become a killing field - daily the bodies of young Black boys and girls add to the faceless statistics of death - leaving fear and loss in its wake.

No young Black male in this country is exempt from having to cross this field not even Miss Golden's only child, Michael, who is the son of educated parents. His mother is an accomplished writer and, at present, a professor in the MFA graduate writing program at Virginia Commonwealth University. Michael's birth father is a college educated Nigerian businessman, and his stepfather is a public school teacher with twenty years' experience in the Washington, DC, schools. Despite the apparent advantages of a solidly middle-class life and of having professional parents, Michael is no safer, or at best merely a little safer, than a child growing up in some of the worst public housing projects and neighborhoods. It is not that some children should be more safe than others; all should be safe. What Michael and the others have in common is that because they are Black and male, they all have to cross the killing field.

Miss Golden's personal account of her concern as a Black mother for her Black son is based on a diary she began keeping in early 1993. She began keeping the diary as a way "to freeze and permanently possess the events and emotions that would define that year in my son's life" (p. 76), the year Michael would finally meet his birth father, whom he had not seen since he was a year old. Her other purpose for keeping the diary was "to meditate on and overcome the psychic toll the continuing murders of Black youth imposed. Washington, D.C. was becoming a killing field" (p. 76).

In her effort to understand why so many Black males are dying, she looks at structural, historical, community, and personal or family dynamics to provide answers. But it is her conversations with mothers who also have Black sons that yield insights in her search for understanding. For example, as she and a friend discuss the violence killing so many young men, Patty, a TV producer,interjects: "I've got a six year old son and I feel like I'm raising a target" (p. 8). In a discussion with sociologist Joyce Ladner of Howard University, Golden tells Ladner that she is considering enrolling Michael in a private boarding school because she fears for his safety in the public school he attended. Ladner responded that her own son had been in a private boarding for several years and was about to graduate; she was glad she had made the decision to send him. Golden expressed surprise and inquired about the trade-offs that might have resulted from her decision. Ladner answered, "The first trade-off is he's alive" (p. 10).

My one disappointment in Golden's fine book is the interview she conducts with one young man in prison for murder. The young man had once had a promising future, but had engaged in violence and subsequently was convicted of murder. I wanted the author to ask more incisive questions. Maybe this is the sign of a good book, because as she sat with him in prison, I felt I was also there and wanted to ask my own questions.

Golden's book offers a different look at violence and illustrates how it can touch the lives of everyone. It is different because it gives us a view from a perspective we do not expect when we talk about youth violence. Too often we label violence as a problem of the so-called underclass; but, in fact, it is much more pervasive than we would like to believe. In fact, no place is safe, no one is safe. The killing fields are out there waiting to claim another victim.

D.S.A.

by the International Movement ATD Fourth World

Landover, MD: Fourth World Publications, 1995, 173 pp. $12.00 (paper).

Tapori: A Children's Newsletter

Landover, MD: Fourth World Publications. $10.00 per year.

One of the greatest sources of history is people's stories. These stories increase our understanding of our lives and inform our policy decisions. But, unfortunately, the stories that are most often saved and retold are the stories of people with means, power, and influence. The stories of people who spend their days struggling to keep their families afloat or who live in extreme poverty are not usually gathered in historical archives. Recording these stories is one reason why the International Movement ATD Fourth World exists. This Is How We Live: Listening to the Poorest Families is based on a report submitted to the United Nations by the Fourth World Movement in 1994. The Movement was founded in 1957 by Father Joseph Wresinski of Angers, France, a Catholic priest who had been assigned to an emergency camp for the homeless in Noisy-le-Grand. There he found desperately poor people living in huts without electricity or sufficient water. Wresinki, with the families of the camp, formed what came to be known as the Fourth World Movement. Working together to improve their lives, the people of the Movement have taken their stories to the United Nations, France's Presidential Palace, and the Vatican. The Movement's work is carried on by full- and part-time volunteers of many nationalities and economic backgrounds. They live and work with poor people around the world, minimally supported by contributions from supporters of the Movement.

The movement is called Fourth World after the people of the "fourth order" in eighteenth-century France who were the "day laborers, the sick and disabled, the indigent, the sacred order of the underprivileged" (p. viii). "ATD" means Aide a Toute Detresse--to help all of the distressed. The foundation of the Fourth World Movement's work is the belief that societal change cannot occur unless it is rooted in a true understanding of people's experiences through the generations. Since people living in extreme poverty rarely leave written records, it is the job of Fourth World Movement volunteers to compile an accurate history of the poor by writing down what their poor neighbors tell them each day, providing a means for their voices to be heard.

The first section of the book tells the stories of five families from different countries: Germany, the United States, Guatemala, Burkina Faso, and Thailand. Each story is written by Fourth World volunteers who have known the families for some time, and who compiled the stories using written records that spanned several years, as well as interview data. Family members were asked to comment on the stories after they were compiled, and these comments were then incorporated in the book. The second section of the book analyzes common factors that emerge from the stories in order to help ensure that policies made in response to poverty take into account the experiences of the poor themselves.

For example, readers learn about the Jones-Robinson family, fromthe Lower East Side of New York City, who have endured constant poverty over several generations. Carrie Robinson, born in 1910, moved from rural poverty in the South to seek a better life in New York City, only to find an urban version of the poverty she escaped. The Movement authors describe the apartment houses the Jones-Robinsons lived in as "housing hell" (p. 56). Carrie describes her apartment walls as having "holes as big as your head" (p. 56) through which the rats came in. Plumbing, electricity, and heating maintenance were makeshift and rare, and there was no security. Furniture was often stolen or even burned, since fires were common. Jenny, one of Carrie's daughters, had all her possessions stolen when they were moved to a Red Cross shelter after one fire.

Carrie's son and daughter-in-law, William and May Jones, and theirfour children had followed Carrie to New York City from the South, where they had worked on farms. When they moved to New York, William managed to maintain employment for nine years moving furniture and doing janitorial work and house repairs. May, on the other hand, did not get a job; she was scared to leave the apartment since, despite locked doors, break-ins occurred on a regular basis. Even when the apartment buildings had deteriorated all around them and kids from the neighborhood were stealing the appliances and plumbing, and cutting access to the electricity, William, with the help of his twelve-year-old daughter, continued to take his janitorial responsibilities seriously. But after nine years, when William and May were relocated to another section of the city, William lost his janitorial job, his work opportunities in the old neighborhood, and eventually could not stop himself from drinking.

In the analysis section of the book, the authors use the Jones-Robinson family's experiences and those of other families in the book to point out to policymakers the faults of current responses to poverty. Because these responses are not based on a comprehensive understanding of very poor people, the policies often lead to the break-up of families, and eventually break the spirit of people like William.

In a glossary at the end of the book, readers learn that the Fourth World Movement has several projects especially for children. Volunteers establish residence in poor neighborhoods, and then set up street libraries where they live. These street libraries consist of books, art materials, or computers laid out on a blanket in a stairwell, on a piece of cardboard on a sidewalk, or under a bridge. In these locations, children in the neighborhood can listen to stories read aloud to them, read stories themselves, or do art projects.

Tapori, a newsletter for children aged seven to thirteen, is also produced by the Fourth World Movement. The title of the newsletter comes from "Taporis," the name given to poor children in India who live in train stations and care for each other. This wonderful classroom resource is produced for children of all backgrounds, so, like the Indian children, they may learn to care for each other. For example, in the April 1995 edition, a story by Mike, a poor boy in France, describes the discontinuity in his school and life experiences:

In school, they never talk about the social worker who comes to see his parents.
They never talk about the little neighbor girl who was put in foster care.
They never talk about the police who always come around in the neighborhood.
They never talk about all the men who are ill like his father and who cannot work anymore.
At school, it is like a postcard.
Everything looks shiny. (p. 12)

Along with the newsletter, the Fourth World Movement publishes a mini-book series for children called "Children of Courage." Each mini-book shares the life of a child living in poverty. These stories and the newsletter are great resources for teachers to use in teaching about human rights issues in the classroom.

Finally, the Fourth World Movement has a series of "traveling suitcases." These "suitcases" are sent to community organizations and schools throughout the world. Each suitcase has a theme, such as "People Who Care About Others." Children in one location contribute drawings, pictures, and stories they create, and the suitcase is then sent to another destination, eventually becoming a wonderful collection of children's thoughts and artifacts.

In sum, the Fourth World Movement's publications are unique resources for teachers, administrators, and policymakers. (U.S. address: 7600 Willowhill Drive, Landover, MD 20785, tel. (301) 336-9489; International address: 1733 Prey Vaux, Switzerland)

I.H.

by Elizabeth Waites.

New York: W. W. Norton, 1993. 260 pp. $32.95.

What has the feminist movement of the past two decades contributed to our knowledge of social and psychological adaptation and coping in women? How does the field of trauma research and clinical practice inform our understanding of what has traditionally been called psychopathology in women? In Trauma and Survival: Post-Traumatic and Dissociative Disorders in Women, Elizabeth Waites begins to integrate these bodies of research in order to gain a more complex and subtle account of women's psychological sufferings. In so doing, Waites argues that many psychiatric disorders, such as borderline personality disorder, depression, dissociative identity disorder (formerly known as multiple personality disorder), and other dissociative disorders that are more prevalent among women than men, often have a common etiology of trauma.

Given that experiences such as childhood physical and/or sexual abuse, rape, and battering relationships are all too common in women's lives, it is not surprising that these experiences would contribute to the development of both healthy and maladaptive coping behaviors. Waites explains that the interpretation of women's psychiatric and physical illnesses are often made by physicians and other health-care professionals who may not consider trauma as part of a woman's history and who, in addition, may not be aware of the physiological and psychological impact of trauma. For example, in chapter one, Waites points out how psychologists traditionally consider hallucinations to be a hallmark of psychosis. However, some hallucinations may instead be flashbacks; that is, vivid, eidetic memories of events that actually occurred. Waites warns that it would be a therapeutic mistake to consider these memories strictly fantasy if they are related to a woman's previous trauma history.

Not only does the author admonish against diagnoses that do not account for trauma in women's lives, but she also incorporates into her discussion the history of a patriarchal culture whose medical interpretations of women's illnesses both physical and psychological have often been cast in the light of fantasy (as inpsychoanalysis) or by explaining women to be by nature masochistic, irrational, and self-defeating, and therefore likely to be victimized. Furthermore, the author addresses the issue of women's sexuality in a patriarchal culture, and how this context frames a particular interpretation of women's roles in rape or other sexual mistreatment. In other words, Waites asserts that women are considered to be seductive and are held responsible for setting limits on men's sexuality (instead of men being responsible for setting limits on their own sexuality), and that only women are held responsible for unwanted pregnancies.

The author discusses women's sexuality as that of a double bind in a patriarchal society. A women's sexuality and femininity can bepower; for example, femininity offers the potential of a monthly opportunity to bear children, and her breasts offer the opportunity to feed, nurture, and bond with a developing infant. Yet, in a patriarchal society, the blood from a woman's menstrual cycle has often been considered to be dirty and a source of contamination to men. A woman's body is further defiled through the objectification created by pornography. Women's most unique and powerful characteristics are both exalted in an abstracted, objectified manner and defiled, creating the strongest of double binds for female identity, all the more exacerbated by abuse against women. In chapter nine, Self-injury, the author connects this understanding of the symbolic significance of blood in a girl or woman's identity with the behavior of cutting, a self-injurious behavior where adolescent girls or women cut the inside of their arms, a practice common among females with a trauma history. Waites also incorporates psychobiological explanations of cutting behaviors in women, as well as psychological explanations that involve dissociation, all related to abuse and trauma.

Though not strictly related to women, the book also includes a chapter on the psychobiology of post-traumatic pathologies, and one on the impact of trauma on development. In addition, Dr. Waites offers her personal views on working with women trauma survivors derived from her work as a clinician. Chapters on self-injury and ritualized abuse add to the comprehensiveness of this volume.

This book summarizes much of the existing literature on trauma and begins to integrate this knowledge with contemporary thinking regarding feminism. However, this book might have contributed to a more current conversation of trauma treatment had it provided a critical review of body-oriented therapies for women with trauma histories. In addition, Waites does not address either ethnic or class differences among women. She does not explore how these differences could affect a woman's experience of trauma.

Nonetheless, for those therapists, physicians, social workers, teachers, and researchers who have not considered the impact of trauma on women's development and suffering, this book serves as a wake-up call. It remains a valuable reference for anyone concerned with the health and welfare of women women for whom trauma has become a part of the fabric of their lives.

H.S.G.

by John W. Creswell.

Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1994. 228 pp. $48.00; $19.95 (paper).

As a doctoral student in the midst of writing a dissertation proposal and interested in combining both quantitative and qualitative research methods in my study, I was naturally drawn to this book by its title, Research Design: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. I was somewhat disappointed to find, however, that the title refers to the two distinct research methods, rather than to a combination. Nevertheless, while Research Design devotes only one of its eleven chapters to a combined approach, it is a book worth reading.

In this "how to" research methods book, Creswell takes the researcher-to-be through the various stages of the research process: choosing a research paradigm, finding literature, writing an introduction, stating the study's purpose, and determining the research questions as well as the significance of the study. Each of the chapters, organized with bullets, italicized remarks, examples, tables, and summaries, provides clear and easy-to-follow instructions. The author has worked hard in simplifying the research design. For example, chapter four discusses how to write a statement of purpose and includes a fill-in-the-blank example that the reader can use to "script" their own. There are also writing exercises at the end of each chapter; for example, in chapter one the reader is given the following task: "Develop a table of contents for the study, based on one of the formats present in this chapter" (p. 16).

Other elements in this book are also very helpful. At the end of each chapter, for example, the author recommends several additional readings that delve further into the topic at hand. There are nuggets of useful information, and reminders and hints throughout, such as how to create a research map of the literature (see p. 29), or, for a qualitative study, to "ask one or two grand tour questions followed by no more than five to seven subquestions" (p. 70).

While Creswell should be credited for simplifying an often messy group of concepts and ideas into a simple format, he does so at the cost of hollow content for his target audience. Stating that thebook is prepared for graduate students and faculty who seek assistance in preparing a plan for a scholarly journal article, dissertation, or thesis (p. xvi), Professor Creswell's approach often seems more appropriate for undergraduate research courses. Defining what an introduction is, how to conduct a library search, or the brief grammar lessons (knowing the difference between an active and a passive voice), for example, are fairly tautological for his intended audience. Thus, one of Creswell's recommendations, that "all good writers have the audience in mind" (p. 53), should be expanded to say "all good writers should know their audience."

Despite its often simplistic rendition of conducting research, this is a good book to have on hand. Amidst the confusion of sorting out the details of one's research, it is always helpful to have a booklike Research Design to provide the step-by-step reminders we sometimes need.

M.K.S.

by by Arloc Sherman; Introduction by Marian Wright Edelman; Foreword by Robert M. Solow.

Boston: Beacon Press, 1994. 154 pp. $18.00 (paper).

Whenever I want to know what is going on with the nation's poor children, I turn to the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) for clear, unsullied information. Over the years that I have been reading the CDF reports, I have noted that their sources of information are impeccable--including the U.S. Census Bureau, the Centers for Disease Control, the New England Journal of Medicine,the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, and the American Psychological Association. Their expert sources include Urie Brofenbrenner on the effects of poverty on children; child development expert James Garbarino on the link between poverty and child maltreatment; and University of Michigan psychologist Vonnie McLoyd, who writes about parental stress (due to poverty) and child mental health. Using these varied and reputable sources, the CDF report dispels commonly held myths about the poor, who they are and the impact of poverty on their lives. For example, it dispels the myth that poor children are mostly Black and Brown, living in the inner cities. The real facts are:

• More White than Black children are poor.
• More poor children live outside central cities than in them.
• Rural children are slightly more likely to be poor than children overall.
• Poor children's families earn twice as much money from work as they receive from welfare.
• Most poor families that turn to welfare for help move off the rolls within two years. (p. xxi)

Wasting America's Future also documents the effects of poverty on families and children, such as high infant mortality rates, stunted growth, crowded housing conditions, poor nutrition, and so on.

In addition to the compelling evidence about the human costs of poverty, the CDF report calculates the monetary cost to the nation of not helping poor families and children. In the foreword, noted economist Robert M. Solow states:

Now, possibly for the first time, we can save money by reducing children's poverty . . . more likely it is a gain to the economy, and to the businesses, taxpayers, and citizens within it. But that should be the icing on the cake. Nobody in this age is so callous as to think of children foremost as a source of profit - at least I hope not. (p. ix)

Child advocates, educators, policymakers, and lawmakers will find this latest Children's Defense Fund Report both valuable and enlightening.

D.S.A.

by Signithia Fordham.

Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. 425 pp. $22.95 (paper).

My initial introduction to anthropologist Signithia Fordham's work was an article entitled "Black Students' School Success: Coping with the 'Burden of Acting White,'" coauthored by John Ogbu. The 1986 article was a result of Fordham's participation in an ethnographic study (on which her dissertation was based) of a predominantly Black Washington, DC, high school. It postulated that some Black students do not achieve academic success because they relate academic success to "acting White." This form of resistance by students is based on the conflict between their perceptions of being Black and an American school curriculum based on White middle-class cultural values, which ignores and/or denigrates Black culture and Black people. The article also detailed the ambivalence and conflicts of Black students who were academically successful. Although widely disseminated and often cited in the educational literature, Fordham's article and thesis remained controverisal, as reflected in the work of several researchers such as McDermott, Mehan, Erickson, and Trueba.

Having since read several of Fordham's articles, I have anticipated this longer work. Blacked Out allows the reader to see the full extent of the ethnography on which her previous articles are based, and how the "acting White" theory was developed. I once had a professor who told his students to judge the credibility of a qualitative study by asking, "Can I believe this?" Because qualitative studies are not based on statistical methods, that is to say, numbers, the reader has to rely on the believability of the research and of the researcher's interpretation of the findings. Fordham's book is an excellent presentation of the original ethnographic study leading to the theory of acting White. It is well written and extensively documented, permitting the reader to determine for him/herself if the theory is supported by the data. I recommend this book even to those not familiar with the author's previous work, as it is important for anyone interested in the study of low-income minorities, school achievement, and the use of ethnography as a means of exploring this important topic.

D.S.A.

edited by Barbara Levine.

Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1996.526 pp. $49.95; $24.95 (paper). CD-ROM also available.

This bibliographic reference that lists writings about John Dewey and reviews of his works is an invaluable resource for researchers, philosophers, historians, students, and teachers who are beginning to learn about Dewey, as well as for those more familiar with him. This update of its precursor, Checklist of Writings about John Dewey (last published in 1978), includes works published about John Dewey during the 108-year period from 1886 to 1994. The sheer number of entries (nearly 4,900) points to the significance of Dewey's life and work and his continuing influence on education today.

The book is well organized in four sections: Books and Articles about Dewey, Reviews of Dewey's Works, Author Index, and the Title Key-Word Index. For example, looking in the Author Index, I found two articles written by contemporary philosopher Cornel West, published in 1986 and 1991. Looking in the Title-Key Word Index, I found fifty articles about Dewey's theories and views on art andart education.

Unfortunately, the book provides no easy way to access articles by date or journal name. For example, I thought it would be interesting to find all the articles written about John Dewey in the 1880s in order to compare them to contemporary scholars' perspectives on him. This proved to be quite time-consuming, since the only way to do it was to look at the entries one at a time, noting the dates of publication. Fortunately, the editor and her colleagues at the Center for Dewey Studies have discovered this shortcoming, and they are in the process of producing a CD-ROM version that would allow users to easily complete such a search. They also plan to update it periodically via the World Wide Web.

In sum, this volume and its forthcoming companion CD-ROM not only make writings about John Dewey more accessible, but also demonstrate the diversity of topics, fields of knowledge, and people that were influenced by this great philosopher and educator.

I.H

by Matthew Lipman.

New York: Teacher College Press, 1996. 141 pp. $19.95 (paper).

The ideas on cognition and learning of Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934), a Soviet psychologist and semiotician, have begun to have a major impact in the West in recent years. Even though he has been called the Mozart of psychology, Vygotsky's work was virtually unknown to the Western world when this genius died of tuberculosis at the age of thirty-eight. It was only during the late 1970s that his works were introduced and enthusiastically embraced. Since then, his reputation in the West has matched, if not overshadowed, that of the towering Swiss psychologist, Jean Piaget.

Unlike Piaget's formalistic and stage-like theory of cognitive development, Vygotsky's theory provides more room for considering the role of culture in mental development, learning, and education in general. Perhaps for this reason, Vygotsky's theory is increasingly being adopted as welcome guidance for classroom practice. However, in order for educators and classroom practitioners to apply Vygotsky's theories, they need a contextual understanding of his ideas. For this reason, Lipman's Natasha: Vygotskian Dialogues is a timely book.

In Natasha, Lipman engages in constant dialogues with an invented protagonist, a Ukrainian reporter named Natasha. Through these dialogues, often carried out in a playful manner, the book unfolds in an engaging and informative way that makes Vygotskian thought come alive. Readers of this book will find that the author has done a great justice to the consistent theme of Vygotsky's theory; that is, that thinking is the internalization of speech, and this reciprocal process between thought and language plays an important role in learning to think. Extending these Vygotskian principles, the author also highlights how the internalized meaning-making process is of great significance to learning and, furthermore, is relevant to the community of inquiry. However, some beginning readers of Vygotskian theories might be discouraged by the author's extensive dialogues on the ideas of other theorists, such as Bahktin, Dewey, Mead, or Weber.

L.B.C

by Caryn McTighe Musil, with Mildred Garcia, YolandaMoses, and Daryl G. Smith.

Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges andUniversities, 1995. 68 pp. $15.00.

In February 1990, the Ford Foundation announced its Campus Diversity Initiative, a funding project that challenged higher education institutions to "embrace the rich diversity of American life in a manner that enhances the educational experiences of all students" (p. 12). Nineteen residential, liberal arts institutions were awarded grants to design initiatives that dealt head-on with issues of diversity on their campuses.

Diversity in Higher Education is a short but informative text that offers a summary of the nineteen funded projects along with insights gathered from the development and implementation of the initiatives. It serves as a practical document offering guidance to other institutions engaging in campus diversity efforts.

Authors Caryn McTighe Musil, Mildred Garcia, Yolanda Moses, and Daryl G. Smith comprised the evaluation team hired by the Ford Foundation to investigate the first round of grantees of the Diversity Initiative. The team set out to answer three main questions: What difference did [the initiative] make? Where might one turn for evidence? In what ways were the project's educational goals institutionalized to ensure ongoing commitment to diversity?

The results of their inquiry are contained in this five chapter text. Chapters three and five contain the most useful information for those grappling with the development of diversity initiatives at their own institutions. Chapter three provides brief summaries of each of the nineteen campus initiatives, along with a discussion of the projects that appear to hold the most promise for lasting change. Chapter five offers a discussion of the "lessons learned in hindsight that might be more generally applied in a variety of campus settings" (p. 53).

The book is a valuable source of information for higher educational institutions interested in and committed to creating campuses that provide a supportive and fruitful learning environment for all students, faculty, and staff.

K.L.M.

edited by Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln.

Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1994. 656 pp. $95.00.

This book is a must for anyone teaching, or wishing to better understand, qualitative research. Norman Denzin and Yvonna Lincoln do an excellent job of presenting the disparate theories, histories, and techniques included under the rubric of "qualitative research," thus fulfilling their publisher's mandate: The handbook "should ideally represent the distillation of knowledge of a field; it should be a benchmark volume that synthesizes an existing literature, helping to define and shape the present and future of that discipline" (p. ix).

Readers can open this book to any page and find something that excites them or adds to their knowledge of the field. Some of the chapters that I found helpful were those that address phenomenology, biographical method, and visual and personal methods. In fact, the introduction to this volume can stand alone as an excellent overview of the histories, methods, theories, and terminology of qualitative research - a stunning feat given the breadth of the field.

Denzin and Lincoln bring together some of the best theorists and practitioners in the field: A. Michael Huberman and Matthew B. Miles on data management and analysis; Paul Atkinson and Martyn Hammersley on ethnography and participant observation; Anselm Strauss and Juliet Corbin on grounded theory methodology. Other chapters address case studies; designing funded qualitative research; interpretation of documents; narrative, content, and semiotic analysis; and using computers in qualitative research.

In sum, this handbook is destined to be a classic text in the field of qualitative research that belongs on every student's and researcher's bookshelf.

D.S.A.

edited by Rick Ginsberg and David N. Plank.

Westport, CT: Praeger, 1995. 280 pp. $59.95.

In this comprehensive and insightful volume, Rick Ginsberg and David Plank bring together a diverse group of policymakers and academics to uncover the appeal and efficacy of nationally recognized commissions in influencing educational policy. The authors analyze the impact of blue ribbon panels and reform efforts, such as the 1966 Coleman Report; the 1983 landmark report from the National Commission on Excellence in Education, A Nation at Risk; and the much publicized school reform efforts in South Carolina, which helped propel former governor Richard Riley to become U.S. Secretary of Education.

The authors view commissions as having two different perspectives: those that see their primary purpose and influence as beginning the process of school reform by generating public support for educational change, and those that see their role as having symbolic importance only. In both cases, commissions play an important role in shaping policy. The authors' perspectives, though, stand in contrast to Paul Peterson's foreword, which calls the very purpose of the book into question: "Why are educational commissions a dime a dozen? Why are they worth that but little more?" (p. ix). Peterson posits that a commission "gives the appearance of doing something and shifts the blame to someone else" (p. x), and that policy reports have not improved and show no promise of improving a "stagnant" educational system.

Despite the thematic non sequitur from the foreword to the text of the book, this volume is important reading for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers interested in moving policy into practice.

D.A.G.

by Harry J. M. Huttner and Pieter van den Eeden.

Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995. 288 pp. $69.50.

Research that accounts for the nested, hierarchal structure of such educational data (e.g., that classrooms are nested in schools and students are nested in classrooms) is common in generalist research journals. In The Multilevel Design, Harry Huttner and Pieter van den Eeden survey 160 research studies in education that use multilevel analysis as the primary research design. In a carefully constructed annotated bibliography, the authors comment on the studies' findings and methodology.

The book begins with a brief articulation of the principles of multilevel research, and then discusses the research design in practice. This discussion, with its clear definitions and well-placed examples, provides a helpful context for the bibliographies that follow. In addition to the annotated bibliography on educational research, the authors develop bibliographies for theoretical and methodological issues inmultilevel research, applications in voting behavior and deviant behavior and health care, and applications in studies of organizations and studies of spatial contexts. This book is an instructive resource for students of multilevel design, as well as an important source book for experienced researchers.

D.A.G.

by Lawrence F. Rossow and Jacqueline A. Stefkovich.

Topeka, KS: National Organization on Legal Problems of Education, 1995. 70 pp. $19.95.

The privacy rights of students have long been called into question by searches of lockers, desks, and student belongings. When do school personnel have the right to search lockers? Student belongings? What rules obtain when students are on field trips? School administrators wrestle with these questions as they face increasing calls for school safety, but they often have little expertise in this area. In this clearly presented monograph, Lawrence Rossow and Jacqueline Stefkovich deftly provide expertise on search and seizure. Through a careful analysis of federal and state legal precedents, the authors provide thoughtfully constructed views on the rights and responsibilities of both school officials and students. This volume should be mandatory reading for all school personnel.

D.A.G.