Battleground: One Mother's Crusade, the Religious Right, and the Struggle for Control of Our Classrooms

by Stephen Bates

Delineates the legal, historical, and ethical issues raised when fundamentalists attempted to ban "satanic" textbooks in rural Tennessee

Hardcover

First published September 1, 1994

About the author

Stephen Bates has worked as a journalist for the BBC, the Telegraph, the Mail and, for 23 years, as political correspondent at the Guardian. He is the bestselling author of Church at War and God's Own Country.

Penny Loaves and Butter Cheap, Stephen Bate's kaleidoscopic picture of Britain in 1846 is in all good bookshops and available in ebook now.

Reviews

[Savannah LeGate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished this book with tears in my eyes and pit in my stomach. Battleground is an intensely interesting recounting of a 1980s “censorship” case in Tennessee.

What Bates does well is not only telling the story in an entertaining fashion but by showing both sides of the case with a multifaceted lens. He highlights issues both sides have at their cores.

But most impressively he shows intense compassion for Vicki Frost, the main “villain” in the case. At least I felt tender, soft compassion for her. This case was unique and required a nuanced understanding of the forces at play.

I disagree greatly with Vicki Frost, and yet my heart aches for her.

Battleground is beyond relevant. 40 years later, the question this book raises are still ones without answers.

[Chris Kendig · Rating 4 out of 5]

A compelling, comprehensive, and even tender examination of a small group of fundamentalists who saw heresy in every corner and sought to reshape their school district in an image more similar to their religious ideals.