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Reviews
| This Happened in America: Harold Rugg and the Censure of Social Studies, by Ronald W. Evans. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, 2007. 306 pages. $39.99, paper.
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| The primary emotion that I felt after reading Ronald Evans' biography of progressive era luminary Harold Rugg was that of pleasant surprise. I was familiar with Evans' work, and I knew that This Happened in America won the 2008 Exemplary Research Award from the National Council for the Social Studies, so I expected the book to be thoroughly researched and well-written, which it certainly was. However, I began the book somewhat skeptical about how relevant the story of a rather obscure educator, at least outside of the social studies, would be for a contemporary social studies audience. Yet the way in which Evans tells the story, particularly regarding the ideological attacks Rugg faced during the 1940s, provides a poignant commentary on both the importance of social studies education and the public contention against progressive social studies curricula that questions the status quo. |
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Rugg's story starts with his New England upbringing, which Evans references throughout the book as the source of Rugg's determination and work ethic. As a young man, Rugg received an undergraduate education, not in history or social studies, but in civil engineering. This experience led him to his first teaching position where Rugg became enamored with questions related to education and how students learn. Rugg subsequently enrolled in a doctoral program at the University of Illinois where he earned a Ph.D. in education, although he still had not yet focused on social studies. |
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Where the story becomes relevant for social studies educators is when Rugg accepted a position at Teachers College at Columbia University following World War I. It is here that Rugg rubbed shoulders with other giants of progressive education, such as John Dewey, William Kilpatrick, and George Counts. The position also allowed Rugg to expand on his vision for education, which found new aim on social issues through a problem-centered method of teaching and learning. Rugg's first major venture into this arena came in the form of social science pamphlets that focused on the 7th- through 9th-grade curriculum with a thematic approach to teaching social studies that portrayed history as a method of questioning contemporary social issues rather than as merely a chronology of events. |
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The success of the pamphlets led to a series of textbooks in which Rugg's goal was to make social studies relevant and interesting to students' lives. It was clear, however, that Rugg designed these textbooks to coincide with a social reconstructivist agenda, a position articulated by many at Teachers College and reinforced by the social liberalism created by the New Deal of the 1930s. Yet, as the decade ended and the United States soon became engulfed in another world war, criticism began to mount against the progressive agenda and, thus, Rugg's textbooks. Amid the nationalistic fervor of World War II, conservatives admonished Rugg as a socialist, and his books, of which over one million had been sold since 1929, were systematically banned from school districts across the United States. Although Rugg continued to write and publish until his death in 1960, his career never fully recovered. |
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Sadly, it is Rugg's declining influence at the hands of these traditionalists that makes this story salient for modern social studies educators. Inevitably, when one asks preservice teachers, particularly those in social studies education, why they are becoming teachers, they respond by saying that they want to have a part in changing society for the better. Regardless of the moniker used—progressive, participatory, social justice, issue-centered—what ultimately drives individuals to education is the opportunity to improve society one student at a time by making content relevant and promoting positive civic practices. |
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However, if the Rugg story tells us anything, it is that public schooling operates within traditional power structures and, too often, the authorities are unwilling to support anything that deviates from the status quo. This is particularly true during times of national conflict or strife. After reading about Rugg's experiences, one must question whether such a conservative, nationalistic movement is once again rising in the United States. For Rugg, the source of contention was the totalitarianism of World War II; today's social studies educators face a society not yet a decade removed from the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, a spiraling global economy, and multiple military conflicts around the world. This is not to say that today's progressive social studies educators should abandon their principles, but as Evans shows, an examination of not-so-distant history suggests that teaching for social justice in the new millennium may require a willingness to fight. |
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| University of North Carolina, Greensboro |
Wayne Journell |
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