Education and Democracy : The Meaning of Alexander Meiklejohn, 1872–1964

"Intellectual biography at its best. Nelson has presented us with the whole Meiklejohn, warts and all." --E. David Cronon, co-author of The University of Wisconsin: A History. This is the definitive biography of Alexander Meiklejohn, one of the most important and controversial educators and civil libertarians of the twentieth century. A charismatic teacher and philosopher with extrordinarily high expectations for democratic self-government in the United States, Meiklejohn was both beloved and reviled during his long life. Brilliant and dedicated, he could also be stubborn and arrogant, and his passion for his own ideals led to frequent clashes with prominent and powerful critics. The son of reform-minded, working-class immigrants from Scotland, Meiklejohn rejected the spiritually agnostic and politically instrumentalist philosophies of his Progressive-Era contemporaries, many of whom, he argued, simply took democracy for granted. As dean of Brown University at the outset of the twentieth century, he lamented the disintegration of the old classical curriculum and questioned the rising influence of amoral science in modern higher education. He served as president of Amherst College during the culturally turbulent years of World War I, a director of the famous Experimental College at the University of Wisconsin during the late 1920s and early 1930s, and as a delegate to UNESCO after World War II. An outspoken defender of the First Amendment during the McCarthy era, he was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963. Alexander Meiklejohn was a self-proclaimed idealist living in an increasingly pragmatic age, and his central question remains essential today: How can education teach citizens to be free? "This is the definitive biography of Alexander Meiklejohn, one of the most important and controversial educators and civil libertarians of the twentieth century. A charismatic teacher and philosopher with extraordinarily high expectations for democratic self-government in the United States, Meiklejohn was both beloved and reviled during his long life. Brilliant and dedicated, he could also be stubborn and arrogant, and his passion for his own ideals led to frequent clashes with prominent and powerful critics.". "The son of reform-minded, working-class immigrants from Scotland, Meiklejohn rejected the spiritually agnostic and politically instrumentalist philosophies of his Progressive Era contemporaries, many of whom, he argued, simply took democracy for granted. As dean of Brown University at the outset of the twentieth century, he lamented the disintegration of the old classical curriculum and questioned the rising influence of amoral science in modern higher education. He served as president of Amherst College during the culturally turbulent years of World War I, as director of the famous Experimental College at the University of Wisconsin during the late 1920s and early 1930s, and as a delegate to UNESCO after World War II. An outspoken defender of the First Amendment during the McCarthy era, he was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963.". "Alexander Meiklejohn was a self-proclaimed idealist living in an increasingly pragmatic age, and his central question remains essential today: How can education teach citizens to be free?""--BOOK JACKET. Contents......Page 8 Illustrations......Page 10 Preface: Meiklejohn, Socrates, and the Paradox of Democratic Education......Page 12 Acknowledgments......Page 18 PROVIDENCE, 1872–1911......Page 22 1. “A Voyage across the Atlantic” and “Kant’s Ethics,” 1872–1899......Page 24 2. “College Education and the Moral Ideal,” 1900–1911......Page 54 AMHERST, 1912–1924......Page 80 3. “The College as Critic,” 1912–1919......Page 82 4. “To Whom Are We Responsible?” 1920–1924......Page 118 MADISON, 1925–1932......Page 152 5. “A New College with a New Idea,” 1925–1928......Page 154 6. “A Most Lamentable Comedy,” 1929–1932......Page 186 BERKELEY, 1933–1947......Page 218 7. “Adult Education: A Fresh Start,” 1933–1940......Page 220 8. “A Reply to John Dewey,” 1941–1947......Page 254 BERKELEY, 1948–1964......Page 282 9. “What Does the First Amendment Mean?” 1948–1954......Page 284 10. “The Faith of a Free Man,” 1955–1964......Page 317 Afterword: Education and the Democratic Ideal—The Meaning of Alexander Meiklejohn......Page 350 Notes......Page 358 Bibliography and Suggestions for Further Reading......Page 412 Index......Page 424

This definitive biography of the charismatic Alexander Meiklejohn tracks his turbulent career as an educational innovator at Brown University, Amherst College, and Wisconsin’s “Experimental College” in the early twentieth century and his later work as a civil libertarian in the Joe McCarthy era.

Charles W. Anderson

A splendid piece of work. It is a fascinating character study of an extraordinary figure in American intellectual and educational history. Nelson presents a very balanced portrait of the man, his strengths and weaknesses.

This definitive biography of the charismatic Alexander Meiklejohn tracks his turbulent career as an educational innovator at Brown University, Amherst College, and Wisconsin's “Experimental College” in the early twentieth century and his later work as a civil libertarian in the Joe McCarthy era. The central question Meiklejohn asked throughout his life's work remains essential today: How can education teach citizens to be free?