Kozol's intention [in "Death at an Early Age"] was to write an angry, shocking polemic, and he has succeeded…. Whatever its effects on the Boston public-school system (so far they appear to be nonexistent), I expect that "Death at an Early Age" will be read in the future, as [Charles Dickens's] "Nicholas Nickleby" is now, by those whose habit it is to look back in wonder at the barbarisms of past civilizations. (p. 166)