Jonathan Zimmerman Books

Discover the powerful history of free speech in America through Jonathan Zimmerman and Signe Wilkinson's eye-opening book. Despite our nation's commitment to liberty, censorship has been rampant throughout our history. Zimmerman and Wilkinson delve into the who's who of free speech, those who have supported it and those who have not. This brief, yet compelling work is a timely reminder of the importance of free speech in our democracy. If we allow censorship to silence anyone, we become just as oppressed.

The Amateur Hour by Jonathan Zimmerman is the eye-opening first book-length history of American college teaching. While acknowledging the perennial complaints of poor quality undergraduate instruction, Zimmerman contradicts them with new evidence. He explores how institutional efforts to improve teaching and offer a 'personal' experience for students have hampered professionalization and the development of shared standards. This book illuminates American college teaching, and makes a compelling case for restoring intimate learning communities, especially for America's least privileged students. Anyone who wants to change college teaching will have to start here.

Explore the importance of facing controversial topics head-on in American schools with this insightful book. Authors Jonathan Zimmerman and Emily Robertson highlight the disservice done to students by avoiding contentious issues in the classroom, and argue for the value of civil and respectful public debate. They emphasize the need for better preparation and protections for educators teaching hot-button issues, and delve into the nuances of what constitutes a controversy. With clarity and common-sense wisdom, this book shows the potential to improve our public culture and overcome political impasses through informed, reasonable debates.

Campus Politics delves into the recent surge of protesting and calls for restrictions on campus free speech by the political Left. Author Jonathan Zimmerman explores the dominance of psychology and trauma language in campus politics, leading to self-censorship and invective exchanges. Zimmerman breaks down the driving forces behind this dissonance and analyzes the political beliefs of US professors and students. He also discusses debates over curriculum, affirmative action, academic freedom and censorship, and tactics for balancing social justice with free speech.

Discover the controversial history of sex education around the globe in Too Hot to Handle. Delving into the movements and players behind the spread of sex education over the past century, author Jonathan Zimmerman examines its impact on modern schooling. From its roots in the United States as a means of protecting citizens from venereal disease, to its polarizing reception in Europe and the Third World, Zimmerman details how sex education failed to gain a stable foothold in the modern world. Explore the divisive topic and its ongoing struggles with Too Hot to Handle.

This captivating story dives into the history and significance of the one-room schoolhouse in American culture. From its origins in the late 19th century to present day, Jonathan Zimmerman explores how Americans have remembered and misrepresented this powerful national icon. Drawing on various sources, this book reveals how the little red schoolhouse has been seen as a symbol of lost rural virtues as well as inefficiency and substandard academics. Despite differing opinions, it unites Americans and represents the nation's faith in education.

Innocents Abroad explores the experiences of thousands of American teachers who ventured out into the world since the 1890s to teach and learn valuable lessons. Follow young, white, middle-class, and inexperienced educators as they discover new cultures and perspectives.

Whose America? by Jonathan Zimmerman tells the dramatic story of conflict, compromise, and more conflict over the teaching of history and morality in twentieth-century America. The book examines topics such as whose stories are told in history and how multiculturalism began long ago. Zimmerman explores the challenges of moral and religious education in today's society and how different sides argue their deeply held beliefs without finding middle ground. Despite the difficulties, the book argues that the American tradition of pluralism has softened the edges of the most rigorous moral and religious absolutism.

This book explores the history of drug and alcohol education in public schools and its roots in the social movement of Scientific Temperance Instruction. The program, championed by Mary Hanchett Hunt and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, sparked conflict between expert and popular authority in the debate over alcohol education. The author argues that the real issue was the struggle to reconcile democracy and expertise, offering fresh insight into an overlooked chapter in our history and raising questions about lay influence on school curricula in modern America.