Teachers yearn for books that can spark their creative imaginations and provoke reflection on their teaching practices. The Power of Critical Theory does both. By means of a carefully crafted plan the book aids readers in navigating the convoluted jargon of critical theorists and the opaque waters of critical theory to discover realms of critical thinking supported by critical theory and relevant to the everyday practice of teaching and learning.

Many recent texts on pedagogy espouse some facet of critical reflection as paramount for student learning. However, few show how critically reflective practice is rooted in critical theory or show the potency of critical reflection properly unleashed.

From the outset author Stephen Brookfield sets critical theory into a framework that prompts adult learning. Brookfield shows the relevance of critical theory to challenge ideology, contest hegemony, unmask power, overcome alienation, learn liberation, reclaim reason, learn democracy, racialize criticality, gender criticality, and teach criticality. In short (and sans jargon) Brookfield has crafted a book with wide applicability.

Brookfield claims that his chief aims in the book are to: 1) "...respond to the student who saw no reason to engage with critical theory and who believed there was no way in which her practice as an adult educator was illuminated by its concerns," 2) "...put the critical back into critical thinking by carefully elaborating one of the chief intellectual traditions that informs that discourse," and 3) write the book in such a way as to "...be an accessible entry point into the critical tradition that used language and examples readers could understand" (373). All three of his aims find expression and explication throughout the book.

The unmasking of assumptions held by teachers and students in order to prompt critique and development of new ideas is a constant refrain. Threaded through the book are the original ideas of critical theorists Gramsci, Marx, Marcuse, Habermas, and others. The inclusion of original ideas and Brookfield's interpretation of them yield much fuel for reflection on and development of critical thinking.

Chapters two and twelve are must reads for anyone interested in teaching critical reflection for personal and public transformation and considering the relevance of critical theory for teaching and learning. Each chapter suggests ways by which careful self-examination can lend enrichment to a life of the mind that bears itself out in critically reflective praxis.

Perhaps disturbing to readers will be Brookfield's insights into the practice of teaching critically. He claims, "critical teaching begins with developing students' powers of critical thinking so that they can critique the interlocking systems of oppression embedded in contemporary society" (Brookfield 350). As teachers in the humanities know well, however, unmasking cherished assumptions and making submerged opinions transparent can unsettle students greatly. This is especially true for those using critical theories to enhance critical reflection. Brookfield lays out five mines of student resistance that could also be identified as harbors of teacher resistance to the implications of critical theory for critical reflection.

Brookfield has masterfully led the reader through the text to his conclusion in order that the "so what" question of the book becomes an unsettling liminal ground challenging what the reader may consider inviolable. His five points of student resistance come at the end of the book, but they do not come as a surprise, because they are known to readers as, perhaps, marks of their own resistance. The first resistance pertaining to an emphasis on Marx raises the specter of Marxophobia that can inhibit a student's ability to critique capitalist ideology. A related second point of resistance arises in any critique of capitalism. Brookfield contends that such critique ordinarily meets fierce resistance by those enamored by capitalism's luster and unconcerned about its pitfalls. A third mark of critical theory that seems to be its "...condemnation of the way democracy has been distorted to serve capitalism's interests" (362). The tyranny of the majority unsettles students and teachers alike who find it difficult to gain a critical distance on the nature of democracy as understood in the Western world. Fourth, the often-impenetrable language of critical theorists provides a roadblock to student learning. Throughout the book Brookfield has shown how he endeavored to aid student learning by piercing the veil of critical theorists' argot to show that their sometimes opaque and convoluted language can have substantial implications for the development of critical thinking skills. Finally, he recognizes radical pessimism as a potential outgrowth of familiarity with critical theories. By addressing each of these, Brookfield shows — through his own self-disclosure as a teacher — that his own difficulties with critical theory and critically reflective practice can have a generative effect on student learning and provide ways by which resistances can be effectively engaged.

As a master teacher, Brookfield has provided teachers and students with an eloquent display of the liberating power of critical theory for the development of critical thinking skills. Honing such skills, he contends, can have a positive effect on transforming both the life of the mind and the life of the world.