Pushed to the Edge

Powerful tales of resilience, from educators and librarians in the face of the growing bigotry stoked by the far right“Heartbreaking yet hopeful, Pushed to the Edge is a powerful revelation of the war taking place against public school teachers and their students.” —JoAnne Tompkins, author of What Comes AfterWhen the Proud Boys stormed a library near her former school to disrupt a Drag Story Hour, veteran public school teacher Sue Granzella responded. Drawing on more than thirty years in the classroom, she began traveling California and documenting the stories of fellow educators and librarians who have been harassed and threatened for teaching honestly about race, gender, immigration, religion, and sexuality. Many people would be surprised to hear that it’s happening in California, long considered the haven of liberals and the pinnacle of tolerance. Florida and Texas have been the canary-in-the-coalmine of nascent culture wars, but California is now the disaster siren, screaming a state of emergency. Pushed to the Edge is a powerful and timely collection of first-person accounts from the front lines of today’s escalating culture wars. Cassandra, a young, queer woman of color and an award-winning teacher, was shattered by homophobia and viciously emboldened parents, and was ultimately forced to leave the job she’d dreamed of since kindergarten. In Temecula, educators mobilized their community to try to overthrow the majority-Christian nationalist school board determined to eliminate the teaching of Black history. There are Black educators, queer teachers, targeted librarians, and vulnerable students, all with stories to tell. While rooted in California, the book’s insights and urgency resonate nationwide—offering both a sobering view of what’s at stake in our schools and our libraries and a hopeful testament to those who refuse to back down.