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Edgell, Derek

About the author: Dr. Derek Edgell received degrees from the Universities of Leicester, Essex and Manchester. Since 1978 he has been lecturer in US History, currently working at the University of Southampton New College. He teaches extensively within the

Movement for Community Control of New York City’s Schools, 1966-1970. The Class Wars
1998 0-7734-8262-8
Describes how the failure of racial integration led to new alternative demands for increased parental powers over schooling and ultimately for ‘community control’. The story of the school reform movement citywide and especially that which grew up on three officially-sanctioned demonstration districts in East Harlem, Ocean Hill-Brownsville, and the Lower East Side is told in detail. The clash between parent and community activists on the one hand and majority factions within the teaching and supervisory organizations on the other constitutes the bulk of this work. Matters relating to racial, class and gender configurations are assessed. Broad issues of white racism and black racism come under scrutiny, not least in the context of charges and counter-charges which surfaced at the height of the conflict about black anti-Semitism and Jewish anti-black behavior.

Order of Woodcraft Chivalry 1916-1949 as a New Age Alternative to the Boy Scouts Two Volume Set
1993 0-7734-9197-X
This book looks at the Quaker-inspired movement of the OWC and its founders, the Westlakes, who were uneasy about the military overtones of the Boy Scouts and who favoured an alternative form of training, one that borrowed from Ernest Thompson Seton and his Woodcraft Indians. The study examines the Westlakes; the concept of "recapitulation" in education; woodcraft chivalry in practice; internal conflicts; adult sections; the various schools; the war years and beyond. In two volumes.

Order of Woodcraft Chivalry 1916-1949 as a New Age Alternative to the Boy Scouts Two Volume Set
1992 0-7734-9197-X
This book looks at the Quaker-inspired movement of the OWC and its founders, the Westlakes, who were uneasy about the military overtones of the Boy Scouts and who favoured an alternative form of training, one that borrowed from Ernest Thompson Seton and his Woodcraft Indians. The study examines the Westlakes; the concept of "recapitulation" in education; woodcraft chivalry in practice; internal conflicts; adult sections; the various schools; the war years and beyond. In two volumes.