The American Private School: A Cultural History is a history of private or independent schools in the United States over the past century. Told chronologically, the book sheds light on the important role that the K-12 private school has played in this country, filling a niche in the history of education, sociology, and the United States as a whole.

Lawrence R. Samuel is a Miami-based independent scholar who holds a Ph.D. in American Studies and an MA in English from the University of Minnesota and was a Smithsonian Institution Fellow. Larry blogs for Psychologytoday.com, where he has received over two million hits, and is often quoted in the media.