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More About This Textbook
Overview
During America's Progressive Era at the beginning of the twentieth century, democracy was more alive than it is today. Social activists and intellectuals of that era formed institutions where citizens educated themselves about pressing issues and public matters. While these efforts at democratic participation have largely been forgotten, their rediscovery may represent our best hope for resolving the current crisis of democracy in the United States.
Mattson explores the work of early activists like Charles Zueblin, who tried to advance adult education at the University of Chicago, and Frederic Howe, whose People's Institute sparked the nationwide forum movement. He then turns to the social centers movement, which began in Rochester, New York, in 1907 with the opening of public schools to adults in the evening as centers for debate over current issues. Mattson tells how this simple program grew into a national phenomenon and cites its achievements and political ideals, and he analyzes the political thought of activists within the movement—notably Mary Parker Follett and Edward Ward—to show that these intellectuals had a profound understanding of what was needed to create vigorous democratic practices.
Creating a Democratic Public challenges us to reconsider how we think about democracy by bringing us into critical dialogue with the past and exploring the work of yesterday's activists. Combining historical analysis, political theory, and social criticism, Mattson analyzes experiments in grassroots democracy from the Progressive Era and explores how we might foster more public involvement in political deliberation today.
Editorial Reviews
Booknews
The author cogently argues the need for the development of a democratic public engaged in regular, public deliberation of local and national issues of import. Taking a progressive approach to the study of American history, he examines past attempts to make such discussion a regular part of public life, particularly the Social Centers Movement which developed in Rochester, New York in the early 1900s. Mattson's clear-eyed approach maintains the idealism of his desire to renew democracy, yet faces honestly the failures of the past and the possibility of their being repeated. Paper edition (unseen), $16.95. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.Product Details
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Meet the Author
Kevin Mattson is Research Director of the Walt Whitman Center for the Culture and Politics of Democracy at Rutgers University.
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