“Heffron shatters familiar narratives of white supremacy in the shaping of a nation. His authoritative literature surveys enable significant contributions, but he gives readers more. Using education as his lens lets him bare depths of America’s ‘original sin’ and its costs. Losses overlapped regions and races in forming a stubbornly dysfunctional culture that cast doubt on the reform neutrality of philanthropy, big business, and science. The lessons proved hard to learn.” —Donald Warren, University of Indiana Bloomington