George S. Counts was a major figure in American education for almost fifty years. Republication of this early (1932) work draws special attention to Counts's role as a social and political activist. Three particular themes make the book noteworthy because of their importance in Counts's plan for change as well as for their continuing contem porary importance: (1) Counts's crit icism of child-centered progressives; (2) the role Counts assigns to teachers in achieving educational and social re form; and (3) Counts's idea for the re form of the American economy.