Artists in Their Gardens is a book for the gardener who loves the garden as a means of self-expression. In the ten gardens described, each of us will find things we love, and perhaps things which disturb us. I love the austerity of potter Ann HIrondelle's garden, the zaniness of Lewis and Little's work, the majesty of Lee Kelly's monuments. I could never live with the kitsch of Leter and Barton, yet it is fascinating to see their artistic vision as developed in plants and plastic. The sections on The Artist's Eye helped me see how to translate these visions to my own garden. After all, in my own garden, I am the artist! This book encourages me to be daring in shaping my own garden vision.

In 1989, Chicago began an experiment with radical decentralization of power and authority. This book tells the story of what happened to Chicago's elementary schools in the first four years of this reform. Implicit in this reform is the theory that expanded local democratic participation would stimulate organizational change within schools, which in turn would foster improved teaching and learning. Using this theory as a framework, the authors marshal massive quantitative and qualitative data to examine how the reform actually unfolded at the school level.With longitudinal case study data on 22 schools, survey responses from principals and teachers in 269 schools, and supplementary system-wide administrative data, the authors identify four types of school politics: strong democracy, consolidated principal power, maintenance, and adversarial. In addition, they classify school change efforts as either systemic or unfocused. Bringing these strands together, the authors determine that, in about a third of the schools, expanded local democratic participation served as a strong lever for introducing systemic change focused on improved instruction. Finally, case studies of six actively restructuring schools illustrate how under decentralization the principal's role is recast, social support for change can grow, and ideas and information from external sources are brought to bear on school change initiatives. Few studies intertwine so completely extensive narratives and rigorous quantitative analyses. The result is a complex picture of the Chicago reform that joins the politics of local control to school change.This volume is intended for scholars in the fields of urban education, public policy, sociology of education, anthropology of education, and politics of education. Comprehensive and descriptive, it is an engaging text for graduate students and upper-level undergraduates. Local, state, and federal policymakers who are concerned with urban education will find new and insightful material. The book should be on reading lists and in professional development seminars for school principals who want to garner community support for change and for school community leaders who want more responsive local institutions. Finally, educators, administrators, and activists in Chicago will appreciate this detailed analysis of the early years of reform.

He seguido con atención los estudios del profesor Easton sobre la naturaleza de la Ciencia Política, así como el desarrollo y estudio de la disciplina que él ha desarrollado en perspectiva comparada. Es de gran interés conocer qué sucede con una disciplina como la Ciencia Política bajo un contexto democrático ya que, a simple vista, se tiende a pensar que en dicho marco debería de expandirse y florecer. Ese no parece ser el caso de la disciplina en el Chile actual. Es por eso que me interesa sobremanera conocer el contenido de este libro.

I purchased this book in order to find an optimistic source on the subject of rammed earth. David Easton does have a positive attitude about the subject. I enjoyed his enthusiasm. I enjoyed the 10 or so pages of color pictures and the many black and white pictures through the book. Like another reviewer, I felt the book lacked some good engineering sketches and some good pictoral illustrations of the forming systems. I was encouraged enough by his book to want to build a rammed earth house somewhere in the coming years. johnkurtz@comcast.net.

In Venezuela, South America, there is some interest in reviving an old method of cobnstruction, called "tapial" in spanish (rammed earth). Many old building remain in South America from the time of the spaniards. The book illustrates how a modern enginee, David Easton, in California, has taken over the problem of building with rammed earth in country where there is very little "tradition", hence know how, on building with rammed earth. The book lacks detail on the rammed earth system employed by the authors. More drawings and pictures would be very useful to translate modern technology to underdevelopped countries. Best regards, Miguel A. Megias, Professor of Engineering Universidad de Carabobo Valencia, Venezuela e-mail mmegias@telcel.net.v

I found this book, as other books by Real Goods, to be very informative and easy for the layperson to comprehend. David presents the information in a reader friendly style, and the photos greatly enhance the script.