Demetrion offers us a genealogy of and emerging, conflicted and underfunded literacy field over the past 30 plus years. It is a Genealogy, rather than a history because Demetrion doesn't just offer a chronological list of events, but rather describes the contest between conflicting forces that shaped those events. Demetrion also relates conflicts of assessemnt and accountability, and an attempt by the "Equipped for the Future" project to create a middle ground view on assessemnt and pedagogy for the field. Finally Demetrion offers a possible vision for the field grounded in American democratic founding principles.

The book is a must for literacy students, workers, and anyone interested in becoming familiar with the field. It is not an easy book, requiring time and effort. But it is purposeful, well organized, thought provoking and a satisfying read. It is also instructive about pedagogy, assessment and it has a very strong Dewey inclination.

The book was interesting and very helpful. He went into enough detail so that I understood the background and history so that his conclusions made a lot of sense.

This historical review of adult education over the last 20 years provides a convincing argument for a stronger commitment to democracy in society-at-large. The audience is adult educators, educational policy makers, legislators, college students, and librarians.

Adult literacy has become hostage to a workforce model. Librarians who work with literacy providers may wonder why literacy is not a central policy focus. In George Demetrion's clear and insightful book, Conflicting Paradigms in Adult Literacy Education: In Quest of a U.S. Democratic Politics of Literacy, the workforce readiness model prevalent in the U.S. is explained. I have found this approach inimical, for the most part, to the librarians' commitment to human capabilities. Demetrion helps us all to learn that there are alternative models and gives us the intellectual tools to implement them-- if we have the will.

I will be using this text as recommended for my classes on adult lifelong learning.