Pushed to the Edge Stories from the Culture Wars in American Education

By: Sue Granzella

Published by New Press, 2026-04-07

When the Proud Boys stormed a library near her former school to disrupt a Drag Queen Story Hour, veteran public school teacher Sue Granzella knew she had to respond. Drawing on more than thirty years in the classroom, she began documenting the stories of fellow educators and librarians across California who have been harassed and threatened for teaching honestly about race, gender, immigration, religion, and sexuality. Many would be surprised to hear that it's happening in California, the state long considered the haven of liberals and the pinnacle of acceptance and tolerance. If states such as Florida and Texas have been the canary-in-the-coalmine of nascent culture wars, 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 Christian nationalist school board determined to eliminate the teaching of Black history. 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.