New School : a history of the New School for Social Research

Traces the development of the New School from its founding in 1918 to the present. The New School was a center for adult education established in 1918 in New York and was always open to and supported by Jews. Ch. 5 (pp. 84-106) describes the creation of a graduate faculty in 1933 by president Alvin Johnson. He brought twelve leading Jewish scholars from Germany, assisted by private Jewish contributions and by the Rockefeller Foundation which, however, disapproved of the Jewish and socialist background of these scholars and feared the disruption of the quota system. Ch. 6 (pp. 107-127) describes the refugees' studies on the nature of fascism and their gradual abandonment of socialism. Hans Staudinger, in particular, emphasized the crucial role of racism in the evolution of the Nazi state. With the outbreak of World War II, the New School tried to save more refugees but was obstructed by State Department officials. Also mentions the work of Hannah Arendt at the New School in the 1950s-60s. (From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) NEW SCHOOL Contents Acknowledgments Introduction 1. 1917: The Conception of a New School 2. The Doors Open in Chelsea 3. Growing Up on West Twelfth Street 4. Alvin Johnson and the Encyclopedia 5. Founding a University for Exiles 6. The Politics of Disillusionment, 1933-1945 7. The Second Refugee Wave 8. The Free French in New York 9. Politics on Stage: Piscator and the Dramatic Workshop 10. A Return to Social Theory: The Graduate Faculty, 1945-1960 11. New Students for a New Era: Adult Education in the Postwar World 12. The Changing of the Guard Notes Index