Creating an Informed Citizenry: Knowledge and Democracy in the Early American Republic
Examining the early debates in the United States over how best to educate the constituents of the new nation.

When the founding fathers of the United States inaugurated a system of government that was unprecedented in the modern world, they knew that a functioning democracy required an educated electorate capable of making rational decisions. But who would validate the information that influenced citizens’ opinions? By spotlighting various institutions of learning, George Oberle provides a comprehensive look at how knowledge was created, circulated, and consumed in the early American republic.

Many of the founders, including George Washington, initially favored the creation of a centralized national university to educate Americans from all backgrounds. Over the first half of the nineteenth century, however, politicians moved away from any notion of publicly educated laypeople generating useful knowledge. The federal government ultimately founded the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, to be run by experts only. Oberle’s insightful analysis of the competing ideas over the nature of education offers food for thought as we continue to grapple with a rapidly evolving media landscape amid contested meanings of knowledge, expertise, and the obligations of citizenship.
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Creating an Informed Citizenry: Knowledge and Democracy in the Early American Republic
Examining the early debates in the United States over how best to educate the constituents of the new nation.

When the founding fathers of the United States inaugurated a system of government that was unprecedented in the modern world, they knew that a functioning democracy required an educated electorate capable of making rational decisions. But who would validate the information that influenced citizens’ opinions? By spotlighting various institutions of learning, George Oberle provides a comprehensive look at how knowledge was created, circulated, and consumed in the early American republic.

Many of the founders, including George Washington, initially favored the creation of a centralized national university to educate Americans from all backgrounds. Over the first half of the nineteenth century, however, politicians moved away from any notion of publicly educated laypeople generating useful knowledge. The federal government ultimately founded the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, to be run by experts only. Oberle’s insightful analysis of the competing ideas over the nature of education offers food for thought as we continue to grapple with a rapidly evolving media landscape amid contested meanings of knowledge, expertise, and the obligations of citizenship.
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Creating an Informed Citizenry: Knowledge and Democracy in the Early American Republic

Creating an Informed Citizenry: Knowledge and Democracy in the Early American Republic

by George D. Oberle III MLS, PhD
Creating an Informed Citizenry: Knowledge and Democracy in the Early American Republic

Creating an Informed Citizenry: Knowledge and Democracy in the Early American Republic

by George D. Oberle III MLS, PhD

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Overview

Examining the early debates in the United States over how best to educate the constituents of the new nation.

When the founding fathers of the United States inaugurated a system of government that was unprecedented in the modern world, they knew that a functioning democracy required an educated electorate capable of making rational decisions. But who would validate the information that influenced citizens’ opinions? By spotlighting various institutions of learning, George Oberle provides a comprehensive look at how knowledge was created, circulated, and consumed in the early American republic.

Many of the founders, including George Washington, initially favored the creation of a centralized national university to educate Americans from all backgrounds. Over the first half of the nineteenth century, however, politicians moved away from any notion of publicly educated laypeople generating useful knowledge. The federal government ultimately founded the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, to be run by experts only. Oberle’s insightful analysis of the competing ideas over the nature of education offers food for thought as we continue to grapple with a rapidly evolving media landscape amid contested meanings of knowledge, expertise, and the obligations of citizenship.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780813954172
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Publication date: 12/02/2025
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 246

About the Author

George D. Oberle III is History Librarian, Associate Term Professor, and the Director of the Center for Mason Legacies at George Mason University.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

In George Oberle’s important and timely book, we learn that from the earliest days of the republic, debates over knowledge were caught up in partisan conflict. Because different knowledge regimes could shape the kind of society they lived in, Americans’ debates over knowledge reflected different ideas about democracy itself. Like today, Americans argued over who has the authority to make claims about knowledge: the people, experts, or the government?—Johann Neem, Western Washington University, author of Democracy’s Schools: The Rise of Public Education in America

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