John Dewey and American Democracy

by Robert B. Westbrook

Overview

Over a career spanning American history from the 1880s to the 1950s, John Dewey sought not only to forge a persuasive argument for his conviction that "democracy is freedom" but also to realize his democratic ideals through political activism. Widely considered modern America's most important philosopher, Dewey made his views known both through his writings and through such controversial episodes as his leadership of educational reform at the turn of the century; his support of American intervention in World War I and his leading role in the Outlawry of War movement after the war; and his participation in both radical and anti-communist politics in the 1930s and 40s. Robert B. Westbrook reconstructs the evolution of Dewey's thought and practice in this masterful intellectual biography, combining readings of his major works with an engaging account of key chapters in his activism. Westbrook pays particular attention to the impact upon Dewey of conversations and debates with contemporaries from William James and Reinhold Niebuhr to Jane Addams and Leon Trotsky. Countering prevailing interpretations of Dewey's contribution to the ideology of American liberalism, he discovers a more unorthodox Dewey—a deviant within the liberal community who was steadily radicalized by his profound faith in participatory democracy. Anyone concerned with the nature of democracy and the future of liberalism in America—including educators, moral and social philosophers, social scientists, political theorists, and intellectual and cultural historians—will find John Dewey and American Democracy indispensable reading.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501702037
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	07/22/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	592
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Robert B. Westbrook is Professor of History at the University of Rochester. He is the author of John Dewey and American Democracy, also from Cornell, winner of the Merle Curti Award. He is also the author of Why We Fought: Forging American Obligations in World War II and the coeditor of In Face of the Facts: Moral Inquiry in American Scholarship.

Table of Contents

Prologue: The Making of a Philosopher

Part One. A Social Gospel (1882–1904)
1. The Hegelian Bacillus
2. Organic Democracy
3. Chicago Pragmatism
4. No Mean City

Part Two. Progressive Democracy (1904–1918)
5. Reconstructing Philosophy
6. Democracy and Education
7. The Politics of War

Part Three. Toward the Great Community (1918–1929)
8. The Politics of Peace 23
9. The Phantom Public
10. Philosophy and Democracy

Part Four. Democrat Emeritus (1929–1952)
11. Consummatory Experience
12. Socialist Democracy
13. Their Morals and Ours
14. Keeping the Common Faith

Epilogue: The Wilderness and the Promised Land

Bibliographical Note
Index

What People are Saying About This

Richard W. Fox

Robert Westbrook has written a magisterial book about America's foremost philosopher of the twentieth century, perhaps of any century. Deeply researched and carefully crafted, it is intellectual history at its most scintillating. It will be the standard for measuring not only future work on Dewey but future work in intellectual biography in general.

Editorial Reviews

Highly regarded but largely unread today, Dewey is generally considered a pragmatist in the mainstream of American liberalism. This exciting portrait of the philosopher as an advocate of participatory democracy and a political activist presents him as a more radical voice than is generally assumed. Although the anti-Stalinist thinker cared little for Marx and was quick to see the repressive nature of Soviet collectivism, he considered himself a democratic socialist in the 1920s and '30s, and questioned corporate capitalism's capacity to promote democratic values. Dewey often is blamed for ``aimless'' progressive education, but Westbrook, a historian at the University of Rochester, argues that his actual impact on U.S. schools was limited, and examines Dewey's vision of the school as a laboratory fostering social, cooperative impulses instead of competitive, selfish individualism. This study, intellectual biography of the highest order, reevaluates Dewey's thought as a signpost for the revitalization of democracy. Photos. (June)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Westbrook places the development of Dewey's political and social theory in the context of his metaphysical views as historically developed. For Dewey, the social good is joined to individual development. Thus, democracy is an ethical ideal rather than a mere practical accommodation. To deny the human capacity to judge and act intelligently, given appropriate enabling conditions, while swearing allegiance to democracy, Westbrook notes, was for Dewey a form of treachery. Westbrook claims that contemporary liberal-democratic ideology is treacherous in these terms. So, contrary to the prevailing view, he sees Dewey's as a radical voice, out of the mainstream, for liberalism and democracy. With the so-called ``linguistic turn'' in philosophy fading and philosophy building bridges to other disciplines and doors among the rooms in its own house, Dewey is recently being ``rediscovered.'' This treatment is thorough and instructive. It thus belongs in any library that would consider it.-- Bruce Um baugh, Univ. of Maryland, College Park

Library Journal

A major event in the history of American letters.... This book should last as the definitive word on Dewey for at least as long as Dewey lived.

Alan Wolfe Book World

An exceptionally intelligent, rigorous, and thorough book. Westbrook's call for a renewed appreciation of Dewey's relevance is strengthened by great learning and conviction.

New York Review of Books - Lewis Menand

Neither a straight biography nor a narrow work of scholarship, John Dewey and American Democracy offers instead a briskly readable narrative of Dewey's lifework, focusing on his advocacy of democracy.... Westbrook's reconstruction of Dewey's evolving thought is detailed, sympathetic, and lucid.

The Nation

Westbrook provides a vigorous, convincing, and readable analysis of the major episodes in Dewey's career, including his conflicts with such other prominent, public intellectuals as Randolph Bourne, Walter Lippmann, Lewis Mumford, and Reinhold Niebuhr.

The Atlantic - David A. Hollinger

Far and away the best book on Dewey yet. Westbrook's intellectual biography is scholarship at its finest, a very unusual combination of vast learning, dialectical acuity and literary skill.... This book will do a great deal to make Dewey more available and plausible, and to help his writings shape the imagination of a new generation of Americans.

New Leader - Richard Rorty

A comprehensive intellectual biography of the great democratic theorist and activist.... Westbrook's scholarship is definitive, and he succeeds in defending Dewey's work against most of his important critics, and reminding us that Dewey's concerns and ambitions are still relevant to today's world.

-- "Kirkus Reviews"

A major event in the history of American letters.... This book should last as the definitive word on Dewey for at least as long as Dewey lived.

--Alan Wolfe "Washington Post Book World"

An exceptionally intelligent, rigorous, and thorough book. Westbrook's call for a renewed appreciation of Dewey's relevance is strengthened by great learning and conviction.

--Lewis Menand "New York Review of Books"

Far and away the best book on Dewey yet. Westbrook's intellectual biography is scholarship at its finest, a very unusual combination of vast learning, dialectical acuity and literary skill.... This book will do a great deal to make Dewey more available and plausible, and to help his writings shape the imagination of a new generation of Americans.

--Richard Rorty "New Leader"

Neither a straight biography nor a narrow work of scholarship, John Dewey and American Democracy offers instead a briskly readable narrative of Dewey's lifework, focusing on his advocacy of democracy.... Westbrook's reconstruction of Dewey's evolving thought is detailed, sympathetic, and lucid.

-- "The Nation"

Westbrook provides a vigorous, convincing, and readable analysis of the major episodes in Dewey's career, including his conflicts with such other prominent, public intellectuals as Randolph Bourne, Walter Lippmann, Lewis Mumford, and Reinhold Niebuhr.

--David A. Hollinger "The Atlantic"

From the Publisher

A major event in the history of American letters.... This book should last as the definitive word on Dewey for at least as long as Dewey lived.

Washington Post Book World - Alan Wolfe

"Robert Westbrook has written a magisterial book about America's foremost philosopher of the twentieth century, perhaps of any century. Deeply researched and carefully crafted, it is intellectual history at its most scintillating. It will be the standard for measuring not only future work on Dewey but future work in intellectual biography in general."

Richard W. Fox