Nelson and published by the University of Wisconsin Press in 2001. Other reviewers marked the book's balance, completeness, and importance in resurfacing Meiklejohn as a major figure in the history of American education.Įducation and Democracy: The Meaning of Alexander Meiklejohn, 1872–1964 is a biography of Alexander Meiklejohn written by Adam R. Reviewers noted the clarity of Nelson's intellectual contextualization of Meiklejohn's work, but wanted additional information about what Meiklejohn thought about comparable programs, educational precedents, and luminaries in the field.

Nelson portrays Meiklejohn as 'contradictory, paradoxical, and quixotic' as he grapples with how to encourage students to pursue freedom and how a teacher can teach this while respecting student freedom. The book is split into five sections based on the locations in which Meiklejohn lived: his undergrad, faculty, and administrative years at Brown University, his presidency of Amherst College, his time with the University of Wisconsin Experimental College, and his experience with adult education and free speech advocacy at Berkeley. A popular figure in the early 20th century who has since faded, Meiklejohn was a philosopher and university president who championed unified knowledge, idealism, and Great Books curricula. The title is not a complete biography but draws from five archives to show Meiklejohn through his own words.

Education and Democracy: The Meaning of Alexander Meiklejohn, 1872–1964 is the first full biography of Alexander Meiklejohn written by Adam R.

Dewey democracy and education