I buy a lot of books and even read them sometimes! This one warranted a repeat reading and also an Audible listening. I was expecting it to be a good review of the American public school system, but it was much more than that and got to the roots of where government schools from K thru University are today and how they "evolved" that way over many generations. One of the very few books I've bought extra copies of to give away to my friends who enjoy thinking outside the box and being confronted with new information.

Pete writes so well with the normal person in mind. His ability to bring current events to history makes his books always a good read.

Pete Hegseth has undergone an "awakening" that has changed his entire outlook on education, our national identity (paideia), and how to save it. The Battle for the American Mind is today the one battle that Americans must join, he believes, or we will lose our country. He argues that progressives have gained control over what Lenin called the "commanding heights," that is, K-12 education, gradually taking God and the Christian ethos out of public schools and replacing them with man-made ideas and values. The Frankfurt School Communists who took over Columbia and other U.S. teachers colleges in the 1930s understood that politics is downstream from culture, and initiated a long-term struggle to hijack our culture by first hijacking the education of our children. Today, ninety years later, they have succeeded way beyond their wildest dreams. Pete makes an impassioned argument for a return to classical Christian education "to cultivate Christian wisdom and virtue in students." (p194). British moralist GK Chesterton (oft quoted in this book) put it bluntly: "education is not a subject and does not deal in subjects. It is instead the transfer of a way of life." (p215) And that is precisely why the Left has focused so much of its energy on taking over our schools. "Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted," Lenin said. Pete's despair over his own parenting grew as he came to understand the depth of the Left's control over the schools. "We love our children. We teach them forgiveness... and then we ship them off to Democrat camp... every day. We are willfully blind to the indoctrination of our kids because it is easier, cheaper, and more comfortable to excuse it away." (p241). Mea maxima culpa. But Pete also sees light growing around him in the Classical Christian education movement, and suggests that parents go to classicalchristian.org to find a school near them. (Note: not all are listed on that website, including our own Lindesfarne Hall here on Amelia Island, Fl). If you care about the future of your country and have despaired over what we can do to take it back, read this important book.

This book is spot on. For fifty years I have been saying that the public education system is a black hole, full of administrators making three times more than is reasonable and abusing tax payers money. At the same time the public education system (PES) treat parents like the enemy while at the same time begging for paper towels, tissues, hand sanitizer, etc. Teachers are told to teach for the test. Debate is discouraged. Disciplined has been abandoned unless the teacher gets mad because her class has been disrupted or something was directed at him/her. Teaching or even allowing critical thinking is considered treasonous. I get 1 to 10 page reports from people with master degrees and doctorate degrees that read like they are written by a sixth grader. Even with spell check multiple misspelled words, very poor grammer,, disorganized and lots of words that say nothing. Actually these reports would be an insult to most sixth graders from 40 years ago. This book takes one through the process of how this happened, the negative results of a century of children being used as lab rats by "educators", and how the trust of parents was abused. This book doesn't leave one feeling hopeless and helpless, in that it offers potential solutions. Great book, easy to read and understand and without question much needed by the general public.

Great author.

The book, for the most part, was comprehensive. It provided a lot of info in a small volume...perhaps too much. A lot of generalizations were made that would have been better served by more hard research, data and citations. I think Hegseth was unnecessarily hard on who he called fundamentalist and evangelical schools, and yet said nothing about Roman Catholic schools, as if their carricula was superior, and conformed to his vision of the WCP. By what yardstick did he make this measurement/comparison? It's a rather unfortunate bias unsupported by data; just his opinion. I'm grateful faith based schools were there at all, regardless whether they fulfilled Pete's perfect vision of what the WCP should be. What about Anglican, or Episcopal churchs? Two of the most liberal denominations there are. Were their schools adhering to Pete's WCP? I doubt it! He needs to be very cautious about criticizing evangelicals and fundamentalists for the demise of the WCP!! Perhaps he has a personal bias? Overall, the book is a very good and informative read about a serious issue. I'm just afraid that it may be too late, unless we totally abandon our public school system to the radical left.

Great book. Everyone who has children or grandchildren or really anyone should read this book to learn about what is going on in our schools today.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book from start to finish, although I admit, the information that Pete has presented, was more than upsetting, when he so ably provided the timeline of what has taken place within the public education system. If you have a child, grandchild, niece, nephew, godchild, or someone you know working in the system, this book will lay it out for you as to why it is a must to look at options that will support true learning and not indoctrination.

AWESOME

Pete did a great job on this book. I highly recommend it to anyone that served or just admires the military perspective.

This book tels it like it is.