The ,more things change, the more they stay the same. Sian Zelbo, Professor of Mathematics, Science and Technology at Columbia’s Teachers College in her forthcoming monograph Manufactured Outrage:The Dismantling of School Integration in Reconstruction-Era New Orleans tells the story of how the violent reaction of local residents to school integration in the 1870’s was hardly a spontaneous uprising. Instead, it was carefully organized by a right wing group called the White League in conjunction with sympathetic newspapers. You can pre-order now.

Meanwhile, just last month, four distinguished authors bring the same story to the present day with a new book unsurprisingly settling on the identical title Manufactured Outrage: The Conservative Industrial Complex’s War on Education and How to Fight Back. It’s not history for us to watch school board meetings generate into hotbeds of invective nor to see bitter clashes over composition and curricula in public schools. And the authors show how these phenomena too are fueled by powerful, wealthy interests eager to get their way.

https://hep.gse.harvard.edu/9798895570937/manufactured-outrage