Preface

I The American Revolution in Education
Mr. Ramirez Comes to America
Teaching the Intangibles: General Education in Postwar America
Limitations of the Whole Man
Breaking the Stranglehold of the Present
James B. Conant, American Radical

II Rights of the Pryvat Spyrit: From Dissent to Interpretation
From Separation to Society
From Faith to Fiction
From Origin to Originalism
From Eloquence to Abolition
From America to English

III The Peculiar Opportunities of English
English and Wisdom
The Meaning of Literature
The Birth of Criticism from the Spirit of Compromise
I. A. Richards and the Emergence of an American Humanities
Turning Science into the Humanities: The New Criticism
The Persistence of Intention

This book contains that there is, and that the system of general, universal, and liberal education that became national policy after WWII reflected a distinctive national self-understanding. Exploring the deep currents of commitment and aspiration that informed that system, this book argues that many of the distinctive features of American education reflect a recognition that only education could solve the problems created by democracy, and particularly by a written Constitution. The need for citizens to have disciplined opinions, especially about the meaning of texts, accounts for the centrality of the humanities and the distinctive prominence of English in the American curriculum. In the final section, the book offers a striking new account of the history of literary study in the United States that places it in the context of a national project of education.