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The Goose Step a Study of American Education

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This 1922 book looks at the collegiate cartel of "higher education" in America. The 'Introductory' asks what will happen to America if the young people in colleges and universities are not wisely and soundly taught? Are the large sums of money honestly and wisely used? Sinclair asks what if a bandit crew has hijacked higher education to exploit it for their own benefit? If the students are being taught folly not wisdom, greed not justice, slavery not freedom, and hate not love? Sinclair has read reports, traveled across America to talk to educators and teachers, deans and administrators. Sinclair will not suggest how things ought to be, he will merely state what it going on in the college and university world. He will tell what is being done to the students. It will be up to you to decide whether it is acceptable or should be changed.

They say you cannot understand the cultural institutions of any country unless you know its economic and social conditions (Chapter V). "Interlocking directorates" is how three great banks in New York with two trust companies manage the financial affairs and direct the policies of over a hundred key corporations of America. The control of credit means they control the business world (p.20). An article in 'Harper's Weekly' by Louis D. Brandeis explained how this worked. "Men die, but the plutocracy is immortal" (p.21). Like the vampires of legend, it is renewed by fresh blood. This is provided by the educational system, and the National Educational Association (a lobby of the plutocracy). Columbia University sets the standards for higher education in America (Chapter VI). "Our educational system is not a public service, but an instrument of special privilege" (Chapter IV). Its true purpose is to support the plutocracy. Is it a domestic version of the Prussian system of state compulsion and indoctrination? Chapter VI goes on to analyze the rulers and their relationships. [It reminds me of feudal society with the lords and their vassals ruling and exploiting the masses of serfs.] Sinclair explains the career of Nicholas Murray Butler, the lackey of the plutocracy (Chapter VII). Do college presidents lie like politicians (p.32)?

Sinclair exposes the hypocrisy of N. M. Butler, President of Columbia University. Butler praised the Kaiser for his old-age pensions and unemployment insurance, and for abolishing child labor in Germany (Chapter VIII). But back in America lackey Butler denounced the child labor law in such terms that it couldn't be printed in the press (p.39)! This book is very detailed about the times when it was published. Many of the names will be unknown to those born since 1950. Its monetary figures are far out of date. Gold was $32 an ounce and our coins were mostly made of silver. Its 476 pages are worth reading for those who would like to read Sinclair's reports on higher education in America in those times. This is not a whitewash or cover-up. Its analysis of the educational system has a frankness that would be censored from today's publications.

Sinclair's brilliant and now out-of-print book belongs in the growing list of tragically uncirculated, classic works which includes Koestler's "The Call Girls", Tolstoy's "The Kingdom of God is Within You" -- and much of the output of Thorstein Veblen. All offer social analyses which are probably too penetrating and perceptive for the modern publishing world to handle comfortably.