Reviews for Knowledge, Productivity, and Innovation in Nigeria: Creating a New Economy

The average rating for Knowledge, Productivity, and Innovation in Nigeria: Creating a New Economy based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-09-07 00:00:00 Paul M. Depascale As usual, Fischel examines previously neglected areas of American political history and comes back with surprising and relevant insights. In this book his subject is the shape and form of American school districts. He shows that the one room school district was both an efficient use of rural resources and a means by which Congress encouraged settlement on the Western plains and assured that states would not lock up public lands. He shows that the rise of graded schools and consolidated school districts in the early 20th century was almost totally independent of the calls of educational "experts" like Horace Mann; it was an emergent phenomena arising from the bottom-up as people became wealthier and more urban. He shows that the large, county-based school districts of the South arose in the early 20th century because separate schools for both black and whites made larger catchment areas a necessity for large elementary and high schools (ironically, these county-districts made desegregation easier after Swann v. Mecklenberg in 1971). Most intriguingly, Fischel posits that despite all the failures of American public schools, voucher programs' noticeable lack of success at the polls (11 defeats since 1990) demonstrate that people value schools not just for the education they provide, but for the community "social capital" they create by bringing parents from the same small area together. From a semi-libertarian economist who consistently advocates privatization and decentralized local government services, this is an interesting case, and I hope he follows up on it. Although more repetitive then some of his other books, this is a great work of political and economic history.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-12-15 00:00:00 Jeremiah Haist One of the best books I've read for grad school, tracing the evolution of high school, American universities, and community colleges and their relationships with vocational training. Also a bit disconcerting. We can do so much better at all levels.