Posthumous Pardons and Progressive Era Injustices

actually worked on the ground. Recounting the words of administrators also crowds out other voices, including those of students, parents, teachers, and community members. The author’s choice of three states helpfully illustrates the importance of regional differences, but their distinctiveness, without clear comparative metrics, makes the book feel a bit fragmented. Overall, this book adds to a growing historiography of Progressive Era state-building through public education. Ewert convincingly demonstrates that the discourse of nationalism proved capacious enough to rally constituents around distinct visions of the nation’s future. Then as now, Americans disagreed on this vision, but they all agreed that schools would play a key role in achieving it.