John Dewey & the High Tide of American Liberalism

424 Pages·2016·50.196 MB·English

by  Alan Ryan

Dewey
John
and the High Tide of
American
Liberalism
ALAN
RYAN
ISBN0-393-03773-8 $30.00 USA
$40.00 CAN.
Dewey
John
and the High Tide of
American Liberalism
ALAN RYAN
When John Dewey died in 1952, he was
memorialized as America's most famous
philosopher, revered by liberal educators
and deplored by conservatives, but univer-
sallyacknowledgedashiscountry'sintellec-
tualvoice.AsHenryCommagercommented
in TheAmerican Mind, "So faithfully did
Dewey live up to his own philosophical
creedthathebecametheguide,thementor,
andtheconscienceoftheAmericanpeople;
it is scarcely an exaggeration to saythat for
a generation no issue was clarified until
Dewey had spoken." Many things con-
spired to give Dewey an extraordinary in-
tellectual eminence: He was immensely
long-lived and immensely prolific; he died
in his ninety-third year, and his intellectual
productivity hardly slackened until his
eighties.
Dewey softened the sharp contrasts in
which philosophers, theologians, politi-
cians, and writers on cultural issues have
tended to trade. His mature philosophy
spoketoavastaudienceofreaderswho,like
himself, felt a deep needto believe that sci-
ence would not undermine faith, that radi-
(continuedonbackflap)
JacketdesignbyFrancineKass
JacketpaintingbyEdwinBurrageChild,JohnDewey, 1929
ColumbiaUniversityintheCityofNewYork
JacketpaintingphotographedbyDwightPrimiano,
EastGreenwich,RI
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John

AlanRyanisalsotheauthorof:
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andtheeditorof:
SocialExplanation
Justice