Gold (education, College of Staten Island, City U. of New York) gives a history of summer classes from the 19th century to the present, addressing the question of why universal summer education is not in place in the U.S. The first three chapters examine the standardization of school calendars in the 1800s, both in the country and the city. The last three chapters address the concept of the vacation school and summer school, as introduced by cities such as Newark and Providence. An epilogue deals with the return of summer school after the Depression. Gold uses dozens of statistical tables to support his points. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.