while white wrote on a wide range of subjects, his essay "the public-school failure" from december 1880 that established him as a prominent and controversial social critic. his essay prompted several responses, including from "the new york times" which wrote in february 1881, "it is a libel, pure and simple, made up of an exaggerated statement of some of the poorest results contained in the report with some touches of false coloring. mr. whites conclusions on the first count are, therefore, vitiated. his argument that the theory of public schools is false is a 'medley of fallacies.'"