Giroux uses concepts such as ideology, culture, and power to clarify how schools and education serve the interests of a select few in society Giroux offers the educator a hope, and a means, for influencing change.
Language Arts
This book [is] of immense importance. Giroux is a first-rate thinker struggling with theoretical problems of incredible difficulty... A provocative book.
Quarterly Journal of Ideology
Marks a significant moment in the development of a radical theory of education.
Curriculum Inquiry
I first read Theory and Resistance in Education in 1990 and I vividly recall staying up late into the night unable to put it down. It radically transformed my understanding of education and led me to teaching and educational scholarship. The new edition brings Giroux’s groundbreaking critical pedagogical project right up to the most pressing political, cultural, and economic challenges of the present renewing and deepening its original force as a tool for praxis.
- Kenneth Saltman, Professor of Educational Policy Studies, University of Illinois Chicago, USA,
<i>Theory and Resistance in Education</i> was an instant classic when it first appeared, over 4 decades ago. The years since have only added weight to its analysis and its politics, as we have seen the far right engage artfully and brutally in cultural politics in search of instrumental control of student life. Now, in this revised edition, <i>Theory and Resistance </i>is an instant classic all over again, as Henry Giroux walks, trots, and runs across the prospects and obstacles to a freer time, a fairer world.
- Toby Miller, author of "Why Journalism?" (2024) and "Violence" (2020),
<i>Theory and Resistance in Education</i> provides the basic tools and tactics needed to resist the dark forces of neoliberalism and fascism in education and society today. It challenges every educator to join in solidarity to fight against those who strive to deny students access to a democratic education and constrain their critical citizenship. Giroux is the leading voice of unconditionally committed and fierce scholarship in an environment where strong voices of dissent are discouraged and threatened. He inspires his readers to believe that there is hope amidst the fearful darkness presently descending upon education. This book is essential reading for anyone who is concerned about the future of democracy and education—and wants to do something about it.
- Jeffrey R. Di Leo, author of Selling the Humanities (2023) and Dark Academe: Capitalism, Theory, and the Death Drive in Higher Education (2024),
This is a classic which brought a sophisticated critical theoretical discourse to education and social theory, while ruffling a few powerful feathers. The book was born in dangerous Reaganite times and continues to be relevant today when Fascist authoritarianism again rears its ugly and terrifying head in the US and elsewhere. The clarion call can be: Liberating [Non-capitalist] Praxis or Barbarism!
- Peter Mayo, Professor and UNESCO Chair, University of Malta and Honorary Professor, University of Nottingham. Co-author of Critical Education in International Perspective,