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Forging New Freedoms: Nativism, Education, and the Constitution, 1917-1927. By William G. Ross. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 1994. Pp. x, 277. $40.00.)
William G. Ross has written an illuminating book on a fascinating historical topic. His focus is on the famous trilogy of U.S. Supreme Court decisions in the 1920's involving education and liberty: (1) Meyer v. Nebraska (1923); (2) Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925), and Farrington v. Tokushige (1927). With these landmark rulings, the Court thwarted a nativistic assault on private schools, especially the religious variety.
In the first installment of this legal trilogy, the Court overturned a Nebraska law--defied by Lutheran parochial school teacher Robert T. Meyer--prohibiting the teaching of modern foreign languages...