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Cover photograph by Karl M. Ferron, courtesy of The Baltimore Sun
Blurb: “Deindustrialization, white flight, and inner city poverty have spelled trouble for Baltimore schools.
Marion Orr examines why school reform has been difficult to achieve there, revealing the struggles of civic leaders and the limitations placed on Baltimore's African-American community as each has tried to rescue a failing school system. Examining the interplay between government and society, Orr presents the first systematic analysis of social capital both within the African-American community ("black social capital") and outside it, where social capital crosses racial lines. He shows that while black social capital may have created solidarity against white domination in Baltimore, it hampered African-American leaders' capacity to enlist the cooperation from white corporate elites and suburban residents needed for school reform.
"A significant contribution to the growing literature on the politics of urban education. School reform advocates who embrace privatization as a panacea or who think social capital by itself should cure what ails our urban public schools will think twice after they read this important book."
RICHARD DELEON, author of Left Coast City: Progressive Politics in San Francisco, 1975-1991”