Like most collections of essays, the quality of this one is mixed, but if you can stomach the sometimes trite personal narratives ("I came from a trailer park and now I teach at a community college full of students from trailer parks!"), you'll ultimately enjoy the insights that some of the book's 21 contributors have to offer. However, the collection is aimed at a specialized audience, particularly college English teachers, so if you haven't spent a significant portion of your life wondering why, with all your education, you have ended up where you are, this book won't make much sense.

The most interesting essays address the problem of social class within academia itself. For example, Olivia Frey writes, "The regard (disregard) for composition and composition teachers has interesting parallels with the daily struggles of workers and laborers, and their status within society at large." Although the sentiment here is nothing incredibly new, the fact that it is stated in print is in itself significant and might disturb many composition instructors (and their administrators) who are in deep denial about where they are and what they do.

At times the collection turns on itself, however, with some contributors appearing to advocate relaxed standards and "dumbing down" theories based solely on the social class of students. As a whole, the book would be more effective if it focused entirely on the problem of social class within the teaching profession, but it's still a great read.

In this anthology college teachers from all walks of life tell us how who they are, where they're from, affects their pedagogy. It's a terrific, ecclectic collection that should be required reading for teaching assistants beginning their careers. May it liberate and enlighten them, and any others who can come to personal history, to class, with an open mind.