Conservative Perspective Research Articles

A Prospective Cohort Study of AIS Patients with 40° and More Treated with a Gensingen Brace (GBW): Preliminary Results.

Introduction:There is a growing resistance from patients and their families to spinal fusion surgery for scoliosis. Due to inconclusive evidence that surgery has a long-term effect on scoliosis and/or improves the quality of life for patients with scoliosis, there is a need to extend the conservative perspective of treatment to patients with curvatures greater than 40 degrees. For that reason, a prospective cohort study was initiated to determine the effectiveness of the Gensingen brace (a Cheneau-style TLSO) in preventing progression in skeletally immature patients.Materials and Methods:Since 2011, fifty-five patients have been enrolled in this prospective cohort study. This report includes the mid-term results of twenty-five of these patients, who have a minimum follow-up of 18 months and an average follow-up of 30.4 months (SD 9.2). The twenty-five patients had the following characteristics at the start of treatment: Cobb angle: 49° (SD 8.4; 40º-71º); 12.4 years old (SD 0.82); Risser: 0.84 (SD 0.94; 0-2). A z-test was used to compare the success rate in this cohort to the success rate in the prospective braced cohort from BrAIST.Results:After follow-up, the average Cobb angle was 44.2° (SD 12.9). Two patients progressed, 12 patients were able to achieve halted progression, and eleven patients improved. Angle of trunk rotation (ATR) decreased from 12.2 to 10.1 degrees in the thoracic spine (p = 0.11) while the ATR decreased from 4.7 to 3.6 degrees in the lumbar spine (p = 0.0074). When comparing the success rate of the BrAIST cohort with the success rate of patients in this cohort, the difference was statistically significant (z = -3.041; p = 0.01).Conclusion:Conservative brace treatment using the Gensingen brace was successful in 92% of cases of patients with AIS of 40 degrees and higher. This is a significant improvement compared to the results attained in the BrAIST study (72%). Reduction of the ATR shows that postural improvement is also possible.

THE STRUGGLE FOR DEMOCRACY IN CRITICAL EDUCATION

O texto aborda os desafios que atualmente se fazem presentes para a construção da democracia na educação. É apontada a necessidade de que se busque duas disposições para que a democracia possa ser vivida: que haja um reposicionamento, ou seja, que o mundo seja visto sempre pela perspectiva dos despossuídos; e que o mundo seja visto de forma relacional, ou seja, que se busque sempre analisar e entender as relações de poder e as contradições que estruturam as instituições e sociedades. O artigo termina enfatizando que a luta constante pela vivência da democracia na educação é o que mantém os sujeitos vigilantes contra as narrativas que apontam as perspectivas conservadoras como inevitáveis.

Ética e formação profissional em Serviço Social: do conservadorismo à emancipação

Resumo A partir da leitura crítica dos currículos de Serviço Social, desde 1936 até as diretrizes curriculares de 1996, este artigo objetiva analisar a direção social e a perspectiva ética presentes na trajetória de oito décadas de formação em Serviço Social. Através de pesquisa documental, retoma os dez currículos da primeira escola de Serviço Social, passando pelos quatro currículos mínimos aprovados nacionalmente, até as atuais diretrizes curriculares. Reconstitui o caminho percorrido por uma formação embasada numa perspectiva conservadora à importante inflexão de construção de uma perspectiva emancipatória. Aponta considerações acerca dos desafios postos ao atual projeto político pedagógico, em especial no que se refere à necessária efetivação da transversalidade da ética na formação das assistentes sociais.

Passive innovation resistance – a conservative consumer perspective

PurposeMore research is required into the underlying reasons for passive innovation resistance. This paper aims to propose that consumers who passively resist innovation may merely be conservative in nature and explore a conceptual framework that could explain and predict such behaviour.Design/methodology/approachTheories from the political sciences, social psychology and marketing were studied in trying to understand why some consumers are more conservative in nature and how their attitudes may affect their thoughts, feelings and actions in the marketplace.FindingsConsumers may develop conservative attitudes, such as a need for cognitive closure, nostalgia, authoritarianism, a social dominance orientation, ethnocentrism and an anti-hedonic approach towards life to combat their fear of ambiguous situations and chaos associated with deviance from in-group values. Ultimately, these attitudes may influence consumer behaviour, such as being brand loyal, unwilling to try new options and preferring nostalgic products that would lead to lower levels of ambiguity and less disruption of the status quo. Conservative consumers may also act as authoritarian parents, prefer to purchase durable materialistic products, support locally manufactured goods and refrain from purchasing products for purely hedonic pleasure in an attempt to preserve their in-group values.Originality/valueThe proposed framework offers more insight into the nature and consequences of passive innovation resistance and may serve as a starting point for further exploration on the fundamental characteristics of conservative consumers. The research findings may also assist marketers in managing their new product innovations strategies more successfully.

The New Normative

Over the past decade, LGBT figures have become increasingly visible on Israeli television in its various channels and genres, especially cis-gendered gay men. In recent years, however, the representation of gay people on Israeli television has undergone a considerable shift, whereby many television texts feature gay men as fathers. These texts usually present gay parenthood as a positive phenomenon and sometimes even as more successful than heteronormative parenthood. The recasting of gay parenthood as positive is achieved through various devices, some of which are familiar from other places around the world, while others touch on unique features of Jewish-Israeli reality. In this article, I lay out the various strategies through which gay fatherhood is recast as positive on Israeli television and present the possible costs of this positive (and normative) representation of gay fatherhood. I focus on the television serial drama Ima VeAbbaz (Mom and Dads), whose protagonists are two gay men who have a child with a straight woman. I argue that the show manages to deviate from the usual representation of the gay father, thereby offering an ideological alternative to conventional and conservative (even if accepting) perspectives on gay parenting.

Synergizing Perspectives in Social Work: Blending Critical Theory and Solution-Focused Model

One lacuna in social work practice is the temptation to excessively focus on treating the environment without commensurate treatment for the individual and vice-versa. This is further fostered by learning conservative and liberal perspectives in social work as independent of themselves, without efforts to synthesize them. It is for this purpose that this paper hopes to achieve a synthesis of two theories that are respectively typical of explaining societies and individuals at both extremes. Thus, while the critical theory makes for explaining place of societal structures in remedying problems faced by clients, solution focused therapy concentrates on remedies residing within the client’s potentials, resources and strengths. Data will be sourced from secondary sources, while concept mapping will aid in illustrations.

Review of Conservative and radical perspectives on psychoanalytic knowledge: The fascinated and the disenchanted.

Review of Conservative and radical perspectives on psychoanalytic knowledge: The fascinated and the disenchanted.

Satirical Conservatism in Catherine Ann Dorset’s Papillonades

ABSTRACTThis paper discusses the contributions of Catherine Ann Dorset (1750–1817) to the genre that Mary V. Jackson has termed “papillonades.” These stories in verse, which feature groups of animals that host and attend social gatherings such as balls, satirize adult social behaviors and pretensions in addition to cleverly presenting animal behavior. Although now largely obscure, Dorset found great success with The Peacock “At Home” (1807), which sold over 20,000 copies. Peacock and The Lion’s Masquerade (1807), much like Smith’s children’s books, demonstrate an interest in shaping young readers as future members of society. I argue that, although Dorset’s satire appears to mock social norms and nationalism, it actually serves to reinforce a conservative perspective. These works establish a world in which ritual must be preserved in order to maintain harmony, suggesting that the proper functioning of society and government is dependent on all members’ obedience to their codes—even as subtle predator–prey jokes hint at a darker world of human enterprise. My paper also seeks to explain the varied reception of her work (from commercial success to current obscurity) through its examination of Dorset’s seemingly inconsistent politics.

Efficiency of “Prescribe Vida Saludable”, a health promotion innovation. Pilot phase

Objective“Prescribe Vida Saludable” (PVS) is an organisational innovation designed to optimise the promotion of multiple healthy habits in primary healthcare. It aims to estimate the cost effectiveness and cost-utility of prescribing physical activity in the pilot phase of the PVS programme, compared to the routine clinical practice of promoting physical activity in primary healthcare. MethodsAn economic evaluation of the quasi-experimental pilot phase of PVS was carried out. In the four control centres, a systematic sample was selected of 194 patients who visited the centre in a single year and who did not comply with physical activity recommendations. In the four intervention centres, 122 patients who received their first physical activity prescription were consecutively enrolled. The costs were evaluated from the perspective of the PVS programme using bottom-up methodology. The effectiveness (proportion of patients who changed their physical activity) as well as the utility were evaluated at baseline and after 3 months. The incremental cost-utility ratio (ICUR) and the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) were calculated and a sensitivity analysis was performed with bootstrapping and 1,000 replications. ResultsInformation was obtained from 35% of control cases and 62% of intervention cases. The ICUR was €1,234.66/Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALY) and the ICER was €4.12. In 98.3% of the simulations, the ICUR was below the €30,000/QALY threshold. ConclusionsThe prescription of physical activity was demonstrably within acceptable cost-utility limits in the pilot PVS phase, even from a conservative perspective.

Experimental Study of Fly Ash Density Effect to the Mortar Compressive Strength with Recycled Fine Aggregate

Massive production of fly ash and recycled concrete aggregate from various sources such as industries, demolished buildings and so on has been seen as a threatening environmental waste from the conservative material engineering perspective. However, in recent years, the utilization of waste materials in mixed concrete have been turned upside down to become an alternative in producing eco-friendly construction materials. Therefore, this study is aimed to observe the mortar compressive strength that consists of cement, water, recycled fine aggregate and specifically fly ash whose amount is determined based on the packing density method. Several mixing variations are used to derive the correlation between fly ash density and mortar compressive strength. Three different fly ash percentages, which are 25% (loose), 35% (completely) and 45% (over) are used in the laboratory test with the variations of mixing ratios of 0.2, 0.35, and 0.5. The mortar under completely packaged condition delivers the highest compressive strength in any mixing ratio, which are found at 27.02MPa, 30.26MPa, and 32.15MPa for respectively 0.2, 0.35 and 0.5 mixing ratio. Conclusively, this particular pattern indicates the suitability of packing density method usage as the basic to determine the optimum fly ash amount in mortar mixing.

Black Republicans and the Transformation of the GOP by Joshua D. Farrington

Reviewed by: Black Republicans and the Transformation of the GOP by Joshua D. Farrington Erica L. Metcalfe Black Republicans and the Transformation of the GOP. By Joshua D. Farrington. Politics and Culture in Modern America. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016. Pp. xii, 311. $45.00, ISBN 978-0-8122-4852-4.) While most scholarship on African American political thought has focused on the black Left, studies examining the African American conservative perspective have more recently emerged. Joshua D. Farrington's latest study, Black Republicans and the Transformation of the GOP, offers an examination of black Republicans from the New Deal era to the Richard M. Nixon administration and explores how their goals within the party changed over time. Throughout the twentieth century, many middle-class African Americans remained in the Republican Party, where they sought to carve out a place for the black community and their socioeconomic needs. However, as the title suggests, this book is about more than black Republicans and their political agendas. It also explores the transformation of the Republican Party and how its interactions with African Americans changed throughout the twentieth century. While New Deal benefits were luring the black working class to the Democratic Party, notable black Republicans such as Archibald Carey Jr. and Robert Church Jr. occupied leadership positions in the South's Black-and-Tan organizations. They were elected to powerful positions at the local and state levels and lobbied for civil rights. Black Republican politicians were successful at getting meaningful civil rights legislation passed. Furthermore, on the national level, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, although a gradualist with civil rights, made judicial appointments that led to significant civil rights victories in the 1950s and 1960s. Despite the rising tide of conservatism within the GOP in the 1950s, black Republicans remained a visible presence in the party. Many received highranking federal appointments and maintained influential local and state positions. However, during the 1960s black Republicans and black issues were becoming less of a priority within the party. There were cuts to the Republican National Committee's Minorities Division, fewer black delegates attended Republican conventions, Black-and-Tan organizations were disregarded, and GOP resources were put into Operation Dixie—a plan to court southern white voters. The 1964 presidential nomination of notoriously conservative Arizona senator Barry Goldwater marked a low point for the GOP's relationship with black voters and black Republicans. Despite their marginalization within the [End Page 1011] party, black Republicans maintained their belief in using the two-party system to make both parties address black issues. Ideologically, many black Republicans had also shifted their focus from civil rights to economic self-help. Nixon's black capitalism initiatives had goals of promoting entrepreneurship within the African American community and elicited support from black Republicans. Nevertheless, as the GOP grew more conservative into the 1970s, black support for the Republican Party declined significantly on the national level and has not recovered. Farrington weaves his chronological narrative together with a wealth of archival sources. Using diverse manuscript collections from around the United States, he attempts to fill a vacuum in the current scholarship. However, the book is not without its shortcomings. There is only a brief mention of the work and experiences of African American women in the Republican Party, such as Nannie Burroughs, Daisy Lampkin, and Jewel Lafontant-Mankarious. Indeed, this study would have been further enriched by a discussion of black Republican women's perspectives. Nevertheless, unlike previous studies on black Republicans, the book takes a close look at the changes within the GOP and how the party managed to gradually alienate African American voters throughout the twentieth century. Ultimately, Black Republicans and the Transformation of the GOP is a welcome addition to African American political history and will appeal to those interested in politics, history, and civil rights. Erica L. Metcalfe Texas Southern University Copyright © 2017 The Southern Historical Association

Mitos y falacias en torno a la enseñanza de la Historia Colonial en Costa Rica: un estudio de casos a través de programas y libros de enseñanza 1970 – 2010

This paper makes a literature review about the traditional and hegemonic way it has taught and written history specifically about the colonial period in our country between the seventies and today. This is to demystify some prevailing discursive constructions that depicting the history of our country as harmonious, egalitarian, peaceful and without social unrest, where the development of the nation was through a distribution of wealth and more equitable power than the rest of the region. All this through curricula and textbooks to history teaching in high schools, where the hegemonic groups that conduct educational processes is to disseminate the historical processes in a conservative perspective that does not encourage in the future generations a critical spirit about the society they live and was not invited to find the big transformations needed in building a more equitable, just and democratic society.

Influence of Parenting Style as Perceived by Adult Child on Perspective of Marriage: The Mediation Effect of Recognize Gender Roles

This study use the influences of parenting style as perceived by and adult child and recognizes gender roles for the purpose of marriage perspectives. I provided a general tendency of parenting style as perceived by and adult child, recognize gender roles, and perspective of marriage to achieve the established goals. We analyzed the relative influence of socio-demographic characteristics, parenting style as perceived by and adult child and recognize gender roles for marriage perspectives. Finally, parenting style as perceived by and adult child are recognized gender roles mediated by the investigated influence of marriage perspectives. We used a structured questionnaire that targeted unmarried men and women 20 to 30 years of age to verify the this study. Data analysis used SPSS ver. 19.0; in addition, we performed reliability, frequency analysis, <i>t</i>-test, hierarchical regression analysis, multiple regression analysis, and variance inflation factor. Looking at these results, both adult children had a higher perception of rearing parents with the usual recognition of gender roles. The analysis indicated a conservative perspective of marriage. Adult children of mothers rearing and recognize gender roles sub-area of masculinity and femininity are perceived to be a significant change observed in marriage perspectives in addition to socio-demographic characteristics of gender and education. However, the relationship between parenting style, as perceived by adult child and marriage perspectives and as analyzed by recognize gender roles, did not have a mediating effect. Keywords: parenting style, gender role, marriage

Narratives of Unwanted Change: Nostalgia in a Latvian Former Fishing Village

Like authenticity or identity, nostalgia may be claimed to be a founding notion of folklore studies. Yet, the uneasy legacy of romanticizing the past, critiqued as the epistemological bias of the discipline, seems to hinder folklorists from participating in current interdisciplinary trends that seek to redeem nostalgia as a critical, creative, and productive mode of thought rather than a sentimental, distorted, and conservative spatiotemporal perspective. Drawing on recent reappraisals of nostalgia in the humanities and social sciences, this article reconsiders the role of folkloristics in the study of its narrative forms. Narratives about the environmental and sociocultural superiority of the past, encountered among residents of a former fishing community in Latvia, represent a traditional way of dealing with unwanted change. At the same time, they demonstrate the diversity of personal engagement with the feeling of loss.

A phenomenal conservative perspective on religious experience

Can religious experience justify belief in God? We best approach this question by splitting it in two: (1) Do religious experiences give their subjects any justification for believing that there is a God of the kind they experience? And (2) Does testimony about such experiences provides any justification for believing that there is a God for those who are not the subject of the experience? The most popular affirmative answers trace back to the work of Richard Swinburne, who appeals to the Principle of Credulity and the Principle of Testimony. Since then, development of his line of reasoning has gone in a number of distinct directions. Here I propose yet another development. I argue first that the Principle of Credulity is false on the grounds that it has several implausible commitments. I then offer a Phenomenal Conservative perspective on the epistemology of religious experience suggesting a categorically affirmative answer to (1) but a nuanced answer to (2) which allows the possibility of reasonable disagreement about religious experience.

The Core Metaphysical Foundations of Christian Conservatism and Areligious Liberalism Versus the Reversible Moral Perspectives of Areligious Conservatism and Christian Liberalism

The Core Metaphysics and Reversible Morals Survey (CMRMS) was administered by computer to a random, stratified, nationwide sample of 1,000 adults. The only groups with significant z score means above 0.5 on the CMRMS’s Conservative Metaphysical Foundations scale were the 178 conservative Christians and the 79 very conservative Christians. The only groups with significant z score means above 0.5 on the CMRMS’s Liberal Metaphysical Foundations scale were the 76 liberal Areligious respondents and the 56 very liberal Areligious respondents. The only groups with significant z score means above 0.5 on the CMRMS’s Conservative Moral Perspectives scale were the 42 conservative Areligious respondents and the 11 very conservative Areligious respondents. The only respondents with a significant z score means above 0.5 on the CMRMS’s Liberal Moral Perspectives scale were the 39 very liberal Christians. These findings—along with the fact that the two metaphysical foundations’ z scores are so negatively correlated, so diametrically opposed, unlike the two reversible moral perspectives’ z scores—suggest an underlying reason why Christians tend to be conservative and why areligious individuals tend to be liberal: the underlying and opposing metaphysical foundations of Christian faith and areligious principles.

Islamic challenges to advertising: a Saudi Arabian perspective

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to synthesize the existing research on Islam and advertising with the perspective of the Salafi authority of Saudi Arabia. This study is an exploration of the impact of the conservative interpretation of Islam on advertising. Design/methodology/approach – This study critically reviews the literature on advertising in Islam, specifically in the context of the conservative religious Saudi Arabia, Islam and advertising and its connection with the interpretations of the religiously conservative segment of Saudi Arabian society. This systematic review covered 42 studies in Islamic advertising and Salafist/Hanbali jurisprudence, ranging from 1980 to 2014. These studies were validated through data triangulation using a meta-synthesis of 39 articles with 5 articles on Salafism and 5 Hanbali juristic texts. Findings – The investigation concludes that there are several factors to be considered when developing advertising messages and content for the conservative segment of Islam. The considerations are as follows: (C1) avoidance of Islamic creedal taboos and displays of immorality; (C2) avoiding usage of musical instruments and taboo entertainment; (C3) women must be dressed appropriately, and gender roles must be in conjunction with Islamic texts; and (C4) avoiding deceptive marketing, defaming competition, and ambiguous transactions. Although there was a general consensus on C1 and C3, few studies discussed C2 and C4. Hanbali jurisprudence, the official school of thought in Saudi Arabia, was found to be in agreement with all four considerations. Additionally, the study synthesizes previous studies and contributes more knowledge to the few existing literature on the topic of Islam and advertising. A better understanding of the conservative interpretation of Islam can contribute to scholarship in the field of Islamic marketing. Research limitations/implications – This paper was limited to the Salafist/Wahhabist interpretation of Islam based on Hanbali jurisprudence found in Saudi Arabia. The findings of this paper can be extended and validated through studying the attitudes of Salafists in different regions toward advertising messages and content. Practical implications – This paper was limited to the Salafist/Wahhabist interpretation of Islam based on Hanbali jurisprudence found in Saudi Arabia. The findings of this paper can be extended and validated through studying the attitudes of Salafists in different regions toward advertising messages and content. Originality/value – This study adds to the limited research on Islamic attitudes and challenges toward advertising in the Middle East. The study reviews existing research and utilizes religious rulings to research the conservative Islamic perspective of advertising.

Estimating the costs associated with the management of patients with chronic wounds using linked routine data.

Chronic wounds are known to represent a significant burden to patients and National Health Service (NHS) alike. However, previous attempts to estimate the costs associated with the management of chronic wounds have been based on literature studies or broad estimates derived from incidence rates and extrapolations from relatively small-scale studies. The aim of this study is therefore to determine the extent of resource utilisation by patients classed as having chronic wounds within Wales using linked routine data - available through the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) database - to estimate the costs associated with the management of these patients by the NHS in Wales. The SAIL database brings together, and anonymously links, a wide range of person-based data from general practitioner (GP) practices within Wales, which includes primary and secondary care consultations to create an encrypted anonymised linking field for each individual. This linkage allows the patient pathway to be tracked through the NHS system both retrospectively and prospectively from a specific reference date. The estimated costs were derived by extrapolating to an all-Wales level from the results gleaned from the SAIL database using the respective READ codes to capture relevant patients with chronic wounds. The number of patients identified as having chronic wounds within the SAIL database was 78 090, which equates to 190 463 across Wales as a whole and a prevalence of 6% of the Welsh population. The total cost of managing patients with chronic wounds in Wales amounted to £328·8 million - an average cost of £1727 per patient and 5·5% of total expenditure on the health service in Wales. A relatively few READ codes represented a significant proportion of expenditure, with diabetic foot ulcers, leg ulcers, foot ulcers, varicose eczema, bed sores and postoperative wound care constituting 93% of total expenditure. When a more conservative perspective was used in relation to classification of chronic wounds, the total cost amounted to £303 million. However, these are likely to be underestimates because of the lack of information for patients with treatments lasting over 6 months and not including patients who might have entered the health care system of wound management elsewhere - such as patients contracting pressure ulcers in hospitals and having surgical wound infections.

From surveillance to torture: The evolution of US interrogation practices during the War on Terror

The war on terrorism weakened the distinction between observing suspicious bodies and torturing them. This article examines ‘enhanced interrogation’ (or torture) practices developed after 9/11 and considers that techniques used overseas by the United States may be applied domestically. The role of the FBI is highlighted since it now has assumed the central authority to interrogate all terrorist suspects held by the United States. Although enhanced interrogation no longer is permitted, the conservative perspective still views it as legitimate conduct and ignores the victimization of innocent people misidentified as terrorists.

History Repeating Itself: The Republication of Children’s Historical Literature and the Christian Right by Gregory M. Pfitzer (review)

Reviewed by: History Repeating Itself: The Republication of Children’s Historical Literature and the Christian Right by Gregory M. Pfitzer Campbell F. Scribner History Repeating Itself: The Republication of Children’s Historical Literature and the Christian Right. By Gregory M. Pfitzer. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2014. 328 pp. Cloth $80.00, paper $28.95. Gregory Pfitzer has written an interesting book, ostensibly about the republication of outdated history texts for today’s Christian homeschoolers, but more [End Page 334] substantively about the debates surrounding children’s understanding of history during the nineteenth century. History Repeating Itself is clear, well written, and insightful, a strong contribution to childhood studies and, in its way, to the teaching of history. Pfitzer organizes his chapters thematically, with each devoted to a different aspect of historical writing, ranging from issues of narrative structure and evidence to perspective and causation. Chapters open with discussions of a particular nineteenth-century history book and the Christian press that has chosen to republish it. Popular titles include the works of Samuel G. Goodrich, Jacob and John Abbot, Josephine Pollard, and Elbridge S. Brooks, all of whom wrote popular children’s histories between the 1840s and 1890s. For today’s conservative parents, these titles derive authority from their age: written shortly after the events they describe, and presumably before professional educators and historians could pervert the narrative, parents assume that they reveal truths about American history that were once known and agreed upon. “Because they are reprints from an earlier time,” writes one mother, “I trust them to be more accurate than most of today’s revised history books” (9). From Pfitzer’s perspective, such sentiments reflect a worldview in which “the worth of reissued [texts] … resides in their ability to repeat and reaffirm canonical beliefs,” and in which “repetition, even redundancy, implies something meaningful about how the past functions to stabilize and sustain a culture over time” (10). Pfitzer rejects such oversimplified visions of the past. He points out that nineteenth-century texts were products of their time and does an excellent job positioning them within period debates about the nature of history and children’s ability to grasp it. Many of the authors themselves struggled with the ways in which they presented their subjects—Goodrich, for example, came to consider himself “nothing better than a falsifier of history, one who had relied too heavily on the ‘fictive or merely imaginable’”—and many of the books were revised and bowdlerized through subsequent editions (43). “Unfortunately,” writes Pfitzer, “the details of these complex production histories are often lost on twenty-first-century homeschooling purchasers … [whose] comments betray a troubling lack of awareness of these complicated origins” (54). One of the most interesting aspects of History Repeating Itself is the degree to which conservatives themselves have switched sides on these debates. It was fascinating to learn that fights over phonics versus “whole language” reading instruction did not begin with the Dick-and-Jane readers of the 1950s but with the Pestalozzian movement of the 1840s, and that today the same conservatives who tend to be outspoken on the rigor of phonics apparently favor single-syllable history books as a means to make the subject more accessible (70, 101–130). [End Page 335] Nevertheless, History Repeating Itself raises some thorny questions about the interaction between political ideology and historical interpretation, both for homeschoolers and for those that study them. Pfitzer does not offer a particularly rich portrait of Christian homeschooling, and omits much of the secondary literature available on the subject. Instead, he relies on quotations from the owners of Christian presses, most of whom come across poorly. Regardless of whether these people represent the homeschooling movement as a whole, one wonders how much generosity Pfitzer owes them. There do, after all, exist articulate critiques of modernity and modern historical writing; conservatives like G. K. Chesterton and Russell Kirk argue that civilization has been in decline since the Reformation. The parents Pfitzer studies are reaching for similar sentiments, though they are unable to voice or fully comprehend them. Is he obligated to acknowledge the validity of some conservative perspectives, lest he dismiss the entire intellectual tradition? Or would that grant too...