"An exceptionally fine study of religion’s entanglement in the public schools—especially the role played by organized school prayer. . . . Highly recommended."—Choice
"Dierenfield makes an important non-theoretical contribution. Those of us who teach constitutional law usually focus on judicial reasoning and interpretation, on doctrine and principle, as relatively abstract and bloodless examples of legal argument. Dierenfield shows how the politics and constitutional issue of school prayer appear in the lives of real, flesh-and-blood human beings. He documents the ways the principals in Engel v. Vitale paid a high personal and social price for their litigation."—Politics and Religion
"Dierenfield provides a personal account of the five families whose lawsuit resulted in one of the Court's most controversial decisions and the demise of school prayer in America. . . . Dierenfield also places Engel in historical context, tracing the debate over religion in the schools from the colonial period to our own time. One lesson that emerges from his retelling is that the targets of religious oppression in one age are often the perpetrators in another."—Political Science Quarterly
"Dierenfield tells the full story of the case and does an especially good job of invoking the times that spawned it. . . . His most impressive accomplishment is that he took the time to track down and interview several of the parties who were involved in the case. . . . Advocates of church-state separation will find much of value in this book."—Church and State
"A fine narrative of the actors and the actions that led to a landmark case. . . . Dierenfield has shown . . . how the case ‘changed America’—how school districts have changed in the intervening years, how the Protestant domination of the American ethos has waned, and how, in spite of conservative fears, Engel did not dry up religious sentiment."—Law and Politics Book Review
"Makes history come alive. . . . A readable book well grounded in legal, political, and cultural history. . . . This splendid book should be required reading for all law students, since it not only shows the human context in which momentous legal decisions are decided, but refutes the poisonous notion that a distant, secularist elite conspired to weaken religious liberty in the United States."—Voice of Reason
“The most readable, entertaining, refreshing, enlightening account of the Engel case yet written.”—Derek H. Davis, author of Original Intent: Chief Justice Rehnquist and the Course of American Church/State Relations
“Never loses sight of the crucial fact that the controversy over religion in public schools belongs not to the captains and the kings but to ordinary people whose convictions—and passions—drive them to do what they believe they must.” —Joan DelFattore, author of The Fourth R: Conflicts Over Religion in America’s Public Schools
“One of the finest studies about Engel and its consequences.”—Robert F. Drinan, S.J., author of Can God and Caesar Coexist?
