Liberal Journalism and American Education: 1914-1941

This book traces and analyzes the relationships between educational developments and liberal journalism, as represented by The Nation and The New Republic, from 1914 to 1941. James Wallace provides new perspectives on journalists, activists, and educators like Randolph Bourne, John Dewey, Herbert Croly, Walter Lippmann, Oswald Villard, and Agnes de Lima.The first part of the book, covering the 1914-1921 period, interprets the responses of the journals to the "cult of efficiency" in schools, to academic freedom struggles, and to the role of education in the broad reform movement. The second section, on the 1920s, explores the journals' support of the worker education movement and of progressive schools, and critiques the charge of anti-intellectualism that has been leveled at progressive education and particularly at John Dewey. In his analysis of the 1930s, Wallace notes that liberals were now operating in a friendlier political climate, and that this changed their educational interests. Wallace explains the journals' role in the struggle between liberals and radicals for control of the American Federation of Teachers, interprets their treatment of "the revolt of youth," and analyzes their responses to New Deal programs for young people. These chapters place events in the context of the journals' support for the Popular Front with the Communists. In the final section, Wallace analyzes the role of journalism in educational reform and states the need for continued criticism of the kind provided by The Nation and The New Republic.