Public schools and political ideas: Canadian educational policy in historical perspective.

Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994, 350 pp.

Manzer's book is a chronicle of selected educational policy topics as they have been implemented in Canada from the mid-nineteenth century to the 1990s. As a political scientist Manzer formulates his argument around liberal political philosophies that are equally useful to sociologists. He is concerned to demonstrate that theoretical frameworks for policy have changed over this considerable period of time, especially with regard to religion, language and the curriculum of secondary schooling, which are his prime areas of concentration. Varieties of liberalism (economic and ethical), political theories of policy and administration, and person-regarding foundations of policy-making, are among the perspectives used. Functions of the Canadian state are explicit in the beginning of the text …