| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.2

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Education and Democracy: The Meaning of Alexander Meiklejohn, 1872–1964. By Adam R. Nelson. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2001. xx, 416 pp. $34.95, ISBN 0-299-17140-X.)

Biographies of college and university presidents rarely make for edge-of-the-seat reading, and this is no exception. But Adam R. Nelson's biography of Alexander Meiklejohn offers a thoughtful and compelling exploration of the man's ideas and educational leadership. Meiklejohn is an important subject for the reason Nelson asserts: he experimented throughout his life with teaching, curriculum, and institutional organization in an effort to create educational programs that inspired people to create democratic societies. 1

Meiklejohn acquired his earliest understanding of community in the liberal politics of a cooperative mill town, Rochdale, Great Britain. As a child, he moved with his family to Rhode Island. After completing his Ph.D. at Cornell University, Meiklejohn returned to Providence to teach ethics at Brown University. A stellar teacher, he was tapped to serve as dean, and he used his authority to promote ethical reasoning among Brown's male undergraduates. In 1912, he took the presidency of Amherst College, which enabled him to focus on the moral and intellectual growth of the students. His efforts, however, were confounded both by personal failings and by international events. . . .

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