Professor Clarissa Rile Hayward provides a strong argument that social norms, boundaries, and attitudes have a stronger role in the use of power and empowerment than previously recognized. To demonstrate her position, she details a study of two Connecticut schools, one located in affluent saburbia, and one positioned in a struggling urban center. The book unfolds showing how the different community conditions in these two schools play a critical role in the development of the respective students, and ultimately their power and ability to shape their own lives. It is a contribution to political theory whose potential has not yet been fully recognized.