Booklist
February 1, 2001

 They seem like unrelated concepts:  civil rights and math literacy.  Freedom Summer and the Algebra Project.  When the individual who links them is Bob Moses, however, the unanticipated connections are worth exploring.  Moses was a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee organizer in Mississippi in the 1960s.  In part 1, he discusses the lessons of that experience, particularly involving the entire community and defining a goal in Mississippi (voting rights) that empowers the community to address its other needs.  In the twenty-first century, Moses argues, “The most urgent social issue affecting poor people and people of color is economic access . . . [and] economic access and full citizenship depend crucially on math and science literacy.”  For two decades, Moses and his associates have been developing an approach to middle-school math aimed at preparing every child for high-school, and then college mathematics.  Part 2 of Radical Equations traces that effort, its experiential pedagogy and its application in in urban and rural school districts.  A surprising study of continuity and change in the struggle to reduce inequality and empower communities.
– Mary Carrell