"The best book on home education written to date. A cross-disciplinary gem. Comprehensive, deep, beautifully constructed, alive, and amazingly accessible." (Joseph F. Murphy, Frank W. Mayborn Chair, Vanderbilt University, USA) "This engaging and meticulously detailed history displays a breadth and depth of insight unsurpassed in the research literature on homeschooling. Gaither not only tells the story of homeschooling's past, but explores its wider significance for education in the years ahead. With this revised edition, Gaither reinforces his status as the foremost scholar of American homeschooling, and his text is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand this compelling educational phenomenon and what it means for families, communities, and broader society." (Robert Kunzman, Professor of Curriculum Studies and Philosophy of Education, Indiana University, USA)

This book provides a lively account of one of the most important and overlooked themes in American education. Beginning in the colonial period and working to the present, Gaither describes in rich detail how the home has been used as the base for education of all kinds. The last five chapters focus especially on the modern homeschooling movement and offer the most comprehensive and authoritative account of it ever written. Readers will learn how and why homeschooling emerged when it did, where it has been, and where it may be going. The second edition has been thoroughly revised to incorporate the most recent scholarship on the topic and to provide comprehensive coverage of recent trends.