The Historical and Intellectual Roots of Compulsory Education, Its Uses and Its Totalitarian Consequences
by Blair Adams

"Those who control a people's opinions control its actions; and such control is established by treating citizens from infancy as children of the State."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau

Compulsory public education is so much a part of everyday life that we rarely think of its tremendous impact and influence in shaping our lives. This unique study presents the origins and nature of this system in a historical framework that reveals the deep and pervasive ways in which it has shaped modern culture.

The Coerced Mind uncovers the dynamics behind this system's development, the nature of the model from which it emerged and the trajectory that can be expected in the future.

In an exciting narrative that offers fresh insights into education, philosophy and religion, it traces the history of compulsory education through the French Revolution, Prussian militarism and America from the colonial era to the present. Above all, this book will help equip readers to face one of the central cultural conflicts of our times.

477 pages