The Straggler: Book Report

in the Middle Ages. The literature of the fundamentalists shows that they are much more preoccupied with their Islamic enemies, with the Islamic governments that they denounce as not truly Islamic, as tyrants and usurpers.” There is deep wisdom here for would-be appeasers: Even the outright destruction of the State of Israel would not solve the problem of Islamist terrorism, because Israel’s existence is not the cause of that terrorism in the first place. Lewis also notes the Assassins’ “total and final failure”: a cheering parallel.

In Battling Corruption in Americas Public Schools (Northeastern, 257 pp., $32.50), City University of New York law professor Lydia G. Segal writes that some major American urban school systems suffer greatly from fraud and abuse. But “school inspector general reports in [America’s three largest school districts] show a relatively low incidence of theft, embezzlement, [and other corruption] among principals and assistant principals”; so one of the most important things we can do to stop the financial bleeding is to “give principals a significant degree of budgetary autonomy and broad freedom from central mandates.”

in the Middle Ages. The literature of the fundamentalists shows that they are much more preoccupied with their Islamic enemies, with the Islamic governments that they denounce as not truly Islamic, as tyrants and usurpers.” There is deep wisdom here for would-be appeasers: Even the outright destruction of the State of Israel would not solve the problem of Islamist terrorism, because Israel’s existence is not the cause of that terrorism in the first place. Lewis also notes the Assassins’ “total and final failure”: a cheering parallel.

In Battling Corruption in Americas Public Schools (Northeastern, 257 pp., $32.50), City University of New York law professor Lydia G. Segal writes that some major American urban school systems suffer greatly from fraud and abuse. But “school inspector general reports in [America’s three largest school districts] show a relatively low incidence of theft, embezzlement, [and other corruption] among principals and assistant principals”; so one of the most important things we can do to stop the financial bleeding is to “give principals a significant degree of budgetary autonomy and broad freedom from central mandates.”