Synopses & Reviews
Review
“Meiklejohn . . . experimented throughout his life with teaching curriculum and institutional organization in an effort to create educational programs that inspired people to create democratic societies. . . . Nelson has done a great service to Meiklejohn’s memory by capturing student voices and allowing them to evoke Meiklejohn at his best—as a teacher and scholar of ethics and democracy.”—Mary Ann Dzuback, Journal of American History
Synopsis
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?
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
About the Author
Adam R. Nelson is associate professor of educational policy studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is author of The Elusive Ideal: Equal Educational Opportunity and the Federal Role in Boston’s Public Schools, 1950–1985.