Inspiring new techniques for engaging students with democratic ideals

"John Dewey and the Philosophy and Practice of Hope" combines philosophical theory with a study of its effects in an actual classroom. To understand how Dewey, one of the century's foremost philosophers of education, understood the concept of hope, Stephen Fishman begins with theoretical questions like: What is hope? What are its objects? How can hope foster a new understanding of democracy and social justice?

The book's second half is a classroom study that mir-rors in practice what Fishman explores in theory, as...