Book cover of Despite the Best Intentions

Book description

On the surface, Riverview High School looks like the post-racial ideal. Serving an enviably affluent, diverse, and liberal district, the school is well-funded, its teachers are well-trained, and many of its students are high achieving. Yet Riverview has not escaped the same unrelenting question that plagues schools throughout America: why…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked Despite the Best Intentions as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

It’s a common story on local news channels across the U.S: a suburban school board meeting is standing room only.

Parents and community members take turns stepping to the microphone to voice their discontent about something happening in their local schoolsa guest speaker who presents Christopher Columbus’ beliefs about Native Americans, a new course advising approach that increases Black and Latino student enrollment in honors and Advanced Placement courses, or the adoption of a new book about growing up that happens to have LGBTQ characters.

Lewis and Diamond’s Despite the Best of Intentions presents data from a 5-year…

From Decoteau and Ann's list on understanding why DEI in schools is under attack.

If you love Despite the Best Intentions...

Ad

Book cover of Aggressor

Aggressor by FX Holden,

It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.

The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…

Want books like Despite the Best Intentions?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Despite the Best Intentions.

Browse books like Despite the Best Intentions

Book cover of An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States
Book cover of Anti-Intellectualism in American Life
Book cover of Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism

Share your top 3 reads of 2025!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,210

readers submitted
so far, will you?

Ad

📚 If you like Despite the Best Intentions, you might also like...

Book cover of Old Man Country

Old Man Country by Thomas R. Cole,

This book follows the journey of a writer in search of wisdom as he narrates encounters with 12 distinguished American men over 80, including Paul Volcker, the former head of the Federal Reserve, and Denton Cooley, the world’s most famous heart surgeon.

In these and other intimate conversations, the book…

Book cover of Lane and the Inventor

Lane and the Inventor by Amy Q. Barker,

A grumpy-sunshine, slow-burn, sweet-and-steamy romance set in wild and beautiful small-town Colorado. Lane Gravers is a wanderer, adventurer, yoga instructor, and social butterfly when she meets reserved, quiet, pensive Logan Hickory, a loner inventor with a painful past.

Dive into this small-town, steamy romance between two opposites who find love…

5 book lists we think you will like!