This dialogue between two of the most prominent thinkers on social change in the twentieth century was certainly a meeting of giants. Throughout their highly personal conversations recorded here, Horton and Freire discuss the nature of social change and empowerment and their individual literacy campaigns.

The themes they discuss illuminate problems faced by educators and activists around the world who are concerned with linking participatory education to the practice of liberation and social change. How could two men, working in such different social spaces and times, arrive at similar ideas and methods? These conversations answer that question in rich detail and engaging anecdotes, and show that, underlying the philosophy of both, is the idea that theory emanates from practice and that knowledge grows from and is a reflection of social experience. Brenda Bell is administrator of a regional volunteer organization and a consultant and a member of the Advisory Board for the Center for Literacy Studies at the University of Tennessee. John Gaventa is Director of the Highlander Research and Education Center and Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Tennessee. He co-edited (with Barbara Ellen Smith and Alex Willingham) "Communities in Economic Crisis: Appalachia and the South" (Temple). John Peters is Professor of Adult Education at the University of Tennessee.

Preface
Acknowledgments
Editors' Introduction
1. Introduction
"We make the road by walking"
2. Formative Years
"I was always getting in trouble for reading in school"
"Reading has to be a loving event"
"I couldn't use all this book learning"
"I always am in the beginning, as you"
"Pockets of hope": Literacy and citizenship
3. Ideas
"Without practice there's no knowledge"
"Is it possible just to teach biology?"
"I've always been ambivalent about charismatic leaders"
"The difference between education and organizing"
"My expertise is in knowing not to be an expert"
"My respect for the soul of the culture"
"I learned a lot from being a father"
4. Educational Practice
"The more the people become themselves, the better the democracy"
"Highlander is a weaving of many colors"
"Conflicts are the midwife of consciousness"
5. Education and Social Change
"You have to bootleg education"
"The people begin to get their history into their hands, and then the role of education changes"
6. Reflections
"Peaks and valleys and hills and hollers"
"It's necessary to laugh with the people"
Epilogue
Index