The Thirteenth Man: A Reagan Cabinet Memoir

Bell, former secretary of education, describes with remarkable equanimity the precarious position of the Department of Education. As he tells it, his original exhilaration at being among the nation's decision makers began to fade early on for a variety of reasons: he learned that cabinet members dubbed his post ""a bureaucratic joke''; he encountered hobbling budget restraints; and daily internecine struggles in the White House undermined his public stance of carrying out the president's election platform of educational reform. Bell presents the story behind the promulgation of ``A Nation at Risk,'' the highly publicized report his department issued on the quality of American education, and on his ambiguous exit from the cabinet. In his report of his experiences serving in the Reagan administration, Bell, who now teaches at the University of Utah, provides an instructive glimpse into the political process. (March)