Patricians, Professors, and Public Schools: The Origins of Modern Educational Thought in America

This text argues that the thinking behind efforts to reform American schools in the late 19th and early 20th centuries emphasized two new ideas: that economic growth and the opportunity it created were more limited than had earlier been thought, and that popular aspirations should be revised downward accordingly. After discussing the thinking that reformers reacted against in the first chapter, the book goes on to examine those most responsible for these new ideas, especially Felix Adler and John Dewey. These chapters argue that reformers’ fears about the social dislocation stemming from economic growth makes the most sense of the educational redirection they promoted. This interpretation of developments that have long been debated by American historians should be useful for those interested in American political, intellectual and educational history.