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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 February 2017
On October 30, 1970, almost eight years ago to the day, I gave a paper entitled, “The Quest for Orderly Change,” before the Midwest Regional History of Education Society in which I attempted to critically analyze some of the key assumptions of the new liberal philosophy which have occupied the center stage of American social and educational reform in much of the twentieth century. This afternoon I would like to reflect back on the conditions which gave rise to that interpretation; on some of the research that has been done in the intervening years on that topic; on some of the criticism engendered; and lastly to sketch some of the areas which need more careful and extended inquiry.
1 This paper was later published under the title “Liberalism and the Quest for Orderly Change,” in the History of Education Quarterly, Vol. XII, No. 1, Spring 1972; and still later as a chapter in Roots of Crisis .Google Scholar
2 Dewey, John, Logic: The Theory of Inquiry. (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1938), p. 233.Google Scholar
3 Ibid., p. 236.Google Scholar
4 Collingwood, R. G., The Idea of History. (London: Oxford University Press, 1946), p. 214.Google Scholar
5 See White, Hayden Metahistory: the Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Europe (Balitmore, 1973). For an extremely perceptive account of the inescapable historicism implicit in all historical writing see White, “Historicism, History, and the Figurative Imagination” in History and Theory: Studies in the Philosophy of History, Vol. XIV, Beiheft 14, No. 4, Wesleyan Un. Press, 1975.Google Scholar
6 Violas, Paul, “Ideology and Historical Analysis: The Problem of Presentism,” an unpublished paper given at the Joint Meeting of the National and Midwest History of Education Society in Chicago, Illinois, October 24, 1973, p. 5.Google Scholar
7 Ibid. Google Scholar
8 The presentist argument that one should write history in such a way so that it can satisfy the need for people to have faith in current educational reformers has been used by both Cohen, Sol and Ravitch, Dianne. See for example Dianne Ravitch's discussion of this topic in The Revisionists Revised, (New York: Basic Books, 1978), pages 166–167. While arguing against the “presentism orientation” of radical historians she in turn develops her own presentism when in “summing up” the consequences of critical history on present policy makers she asks the questions: “If reformers in the past have been power-hungry, manipulative, and devious, why trust reformers in the present? If past reforms have served hidden Vested interests' rather than the people, why assume beneficial consequences from present reforms?” Ibid., page 167. The implication of such a question is that history ought to be written so that the public will “trust reformers in the present.” Google Scholar
9 Higham, John, “Beyond Consensus: The Historian as Moral Critic,” American Historical Review, LXVII, 1962, p. 609.Google Scholar
10 Ibid., p. 612.Google Scholar
11 See for example, Cremin, Lawrence A., The Genius of American Education (New York: Vintage Books, 1965).Google Scholar
12 For a discussion of anti-panther counter insurgency activities, see Chomsky, Noam, Human Rights and American Foreign Policy (Nottingham, Eng.: Spokesman Books, 1978), p. 68.Google Scholar
13 See Social Indicators of Equality for Minorities and Women: A Report of the United States Commission on Civil Rights, August 1978, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
14 See Baras, Casey, “Police Spying at Circle Told,” Chicago Tribune, June 21, 1978.Google Scholar
15 Book, I, Final Report of the Select Committee to Study Government Operations With Respect to Intelligence Activities United States Senate, April 14, 1976, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., p. 182.Google Scholar
16 Ibid., p. 193.Google Scholar
17 Ibid., p. 193.Google Scholar
18 Ibid., p. 194.Google Scholar
19 See Chicago Tribune, June 6, 1977.Google Scholar
20 See “Ghettos, Cancer Top ‘Censored News’ List,” Chicago Sun Times, August 16, 1978, p. 20.Google Scholar
21 See Social Indicators of Equality for Minorities and Women: A Report of the United State Commission on Civil Rights, August 1978, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., pp. 12–13.Google Scholar
22 Ibid., pp. 30–31.Google Scholar
23 Gross, Bertram, “Friendly Fascism: A Model for America,” Social Policy, Nov./Dec., 1970, p. 44.Google Scholar
24 Chomsky, , Human Rights and American Foreign Policy, p. 70.Google Scholar
25 As quoted by Baran, Paul, “The Commitment of the Intellectual,” Monthly Review, Vol. 16, Number 11, March, 1965, N. Y., p. 10.Google Scholar
26 Levy, Oscar, Complete Works, Vol. 5 (New York: Russell and Russell, 1924, p. 55.Google Scholar
27 Mumford, Lewis, The Myth of the Machine. (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovitch, 1970), p. 213.Google Scholar
28 As interpreted by Allport, Gordon, ed., William James Psychology: The Briefer Course. (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1961), p. xxii.Google Scholar
29 Cassirer, Ernest, Kristeller, Paul, Randall, John, The Renaissance Philosophy of Man. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948), p. 225.Google Scholar
30 Taylor, Ian, Walton, Paul and Young, Jack, The New Criminology for a Social Theory of Deviance. (New York: Torchbook, 1973), p. 61. See Chapter 2 “The Appeal of Positivism.” Google Scholar
31 Ibid., p. 61.Google Scholar
32 As quoted by Cloud, Wallace, “Winners and Sinners,” The Sciences, Dec. 1972. Also see Eisenberg, Leon, “The Human Nature of Human Nature,” Science, April 14, 1972, Vol. 176, No. 4031. Also see Lorenz, Konrad, “Genetic Decay,” Intellectual Digest, April, 1974.Google Scholar
33 As quoted in part from Eisenberg, Leon, “The Human Nature of Human Nature,” p. 124.Google Scholar
34 Ibid., p. 125.Google Scholar
35 National Society for the Study of Education, Seventeenth Yearbook, (Bloomington, IL., 1918), part II, p. 16.Google Scholar
36 Collingwood, , The Idea of History, p. 228.Google Scholar
37 Ibid., p. 621.Google Scholar
38 See Bottomore, T. B., Karl Marx: Selected Writings in Sociology and Social Philosophy. (New York: McGraw Hill, 1956), p. 69.Google Scholar
39 Higham, , “Beyond Consensus: The Historian as Moral Critic,” pp. 624–625.Google Scholar
40 For a discussion of this trend see Lamott, Kenneth, “Right-Thinking Think Tank,” New York Times, July 23, 1978; and Crittenden, Ann, “The Economic Winds Blowing Toward the Right-For Now,” New York Times, July 16, 1978.Google Scholar
41 Resek, Carl, Editor, War and the Intellectuals, Essay by Bourne, Randolph, “Twilight of Idols,” (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1964), p. 63.Google Scholar
42 See Shils, Edward, “The Contemplation of Society in America,” in Schlesigner, A. M. Jr., and White, M., Paths of American Thought (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1963), pp. 393–394.Google Scholar
43 Although some Marxist economists such as Bowles and Gintis have attempted such a project the results have been disappointing. For a critical review of Schooling in Capitalist America see Karier, Clarence J., “The Odd Couple: Radical Economics and Liberal History,” Educational Studies (Vol. 7, No. 2, Summer, 1976), p. 185. On the other hand, the work of Michael Katz at Toronto and Philadelphia appears more promising.Google Scholar
44 Baran, Paul, “The Commitment of the Intellectual,” Monthly Review (Vol. 16, Number 11, March 1965, N. Y.), p. 10.Google Scholar
45 Ibid., p. 10.Google Scholar
46 Camus, Albert, The Plague (New York: Random House, 1972), p. 287.Google Scholar
47 Karier, Clarence J., Man, Society and Education (Glenview, Ill.: Scott Foresman Co., 1965), p. x.Google Scholar
