"By nearly every measure, Americans are less engaged in their communities and political activity than generations past.” So write the editors of this volume, who survey the current practices and history of citizenship education in the United States. They argue that the current period of “creative destruction”—when schools are closing and opening in response to reform mandates—is an ideal time to take an in-depth look at how successful strategies and programs promote civic education and good citizenship. Making Civics Count offers research-based insights into what diverse students and teachers know and do as civic actors, and proposes a blueprint for civic education for a new generation that is both practical and visionary.

History & Civics for ICSE schools is a series based on the latest syllabus of the Inter-State Board for Anglo-Indian Education. More to Know gives unusual facts, New Words explains the important terms, At a Glance helps students to recapitulate what they have learnt, A Story from History is a piece of historical fiction and Things to Do and Map Work have activities which encourage the students to do and learn.

Social studies is a field in crisis. The crisis stems from failure to establish the very foundation of social studies’ purpose in public education: civic education. Social studies advocates have never put forth a coherent method for teaching civic education because policymakers and the public have been unable to agree upon a general definition of civic education. This issue has disrupted the field since the early days. As educators sought to include civic education within public schools as a dedicated field, social studies evolved into a blending of history, social sciences, and civic education. Social studies’ evolution never resolved the differences between the three, with each discipline striving to control the narrative. Instead of creating a unified field, the disciplines devalued social studies and thus any discipline associated with it. The Rise and Fall of Civic Education: The Battle for Social Studies in a Shifting Historical Landscape investigates the changing definitions and purposes ascribed to social studies in the United States through time. This result is viewed through the rising tensions from culture wars as America’s divisive politics fight to control the narrative of the disciplines within social studies.