John Dewey and the High Tide of American Liberalism [Hardcover]

Alan Ryan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1995

Considered America's most famous philosopher, John Dewey was revered by liberal educators, but deplored by conservatives. He was, however, universally acknowledged as his country's intellectual voice. Dewey's mature philosophy appealed to a vast audience who felt a deep need to believe that science would not undermine faith, that radicalism did not mean chaos, that belief in individuals did not lead to wild individualism, and that trusting in society did not lead to an oppressive collectivism. This book is an examination of Dewey's ideas and influence, offering new insights into his character and achievements.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

American pragmatist philosopher John Dewey (1859-1952) was an outspoken anti-Stalinist who viewed with contempt American supporters of Soviet-style communism, yet he also warned against the threat to U.S. democracy posed by right-wing American nationalism and politically reactionary Catholicism. Princeton professor of politics Ryan casts Dewey as the quintessential philosopher of middle-of-the-road liberalism, and in this challenging, meticulously argued intellectual biography, he wrestles with Christopher Lasch, Richard Hofstadter, Robert Westbrook and others who have variously interpreted Dewey as an apologist for corporate capitalism or a leftish harbinger of participatory democracy. Stressing that Dewey disliked the modern corporation's routinized work habits and hierarchical structure, Ryan (Bertrand Russell) credits Dewey with synthesizing a secular faith in reform and education, a search for social connection beyond narrow individualism and a religiously inspired conviction that the world is a meaningful unity. Ryan's take on Dewey as a curious visionary who resists pigeonholing in his addressing of pressing current concerns makes this a rewarding, thought-provoking reassessment. Photos.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Ryan writes a highly readable examination of the life and work of the great American thinker John Dewey. When Dewey died in 1952 at the age of 93, he left behind a staggering body of work that filled 37 volumes, addressing topics both mundane and esoteric. At the time of his death, he enjoyed a prominence with the public and the academic world that no American philosopher has achieved since. In an effort to uncover why Dewey thought as he did, Ryan explores his youth and early influences--including the forces that caused his eventual break with traditional Christianity. The author also provides clear, thoughtful explanations of Dewey's often complicated philosophical ideals, such as "experimentalism" and "intelligent action," and shows how we might apply them to our own contemporary societal problems. This affectionate, engaging, literate book will appeal to those interested not only in philosophy, but also in the history of intellectualism in the U.S. Kathleen Hughes

Product Details

• Hardcover: 414 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (July 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393037738
• ISBN-13: 978-0393037739
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #833,985 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The life of Dewey and 100 years of American thought, July 31, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: John Dewey And The High Tide Of American Liberalism (Paperback)

Ryan, from a British perspective, offers a detailed biography of Dewey the philosopher while enveloping the reader in the context of Dewey's varied and shifting America. Ryan also wrestles with the issues America wrestled with and continues to struggle with today. The work blends nicely the intricacies of Dewey's tremendous ideas with detailed and insightful references to Bertrand Russell and contemporary Democratic politics in America. The greatest contribution Ryan has made is detailing the arguments, philosophy, and problems Dewey felt significant without epitomizing and reducing Dewey as many have done since Dewey rose to prominance at the turn of the century at the Chicago Univeristy Lab School.

Educators, graduate students in education and philosophy, politicians, and anyone genuinely interested in American thought will be inpsired by Ryan to dig further--to read more by Dewey, to read more of the history of American ideas not just events in America

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Visionary of the Everyday, January 25, 2003

By 

Robin Friedman (Washington, D.C. United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: John Dewey And The High Tide Of American Liberalism (Paperback)

In the course of a long life beginning before the Civil War and extending to shortly before the election of President Eisenhower, John Dewey (1859-1952) made large contributions to philosophy and to American public life. Dewey wrote extensively for both an academic and a public audience. He developed a philosophy of pragmatism and contributed significantly to American education. He was a socialist and was publically engaged througout his life in addressing the issues of the day. In particular he criticized the President Roosevelt's New Deal for what Dewey thought was an inadequate response to the Depression and a misguided attempt to preserve capitalism. He supported United States participation in WW I but shortly after the end of the War, he became an isolationist. He retained this isolationist stance until Pearl Harbor.

Dewey's thought resists easy summation. His writing style, particularly in his philosophical works, was long, winding, obscure and difficult to follow. As did many thinkers in the 20th Century, Dewey changed and modified his views with some frequency during the course of his life.

Alan Ryan has written an exellent study of John Dewey which explores Dewey's life, the influences upon him, his philosophical writings, his political activism, and the rises and falls in Dewey's reputation after his death. The book is somewhat dense and repetitive, but this too is a characteristic of the writings of its subject. Ryan writes insightfully in trying to place Dewey as philosophically somewhere between the despair of European existentialists such as Heidegger and Sartre and the English-American analytical philosophy of the 20th Century which denied that philosophical thought had a distinctive contribution to make to human intellectual endeavor.

I thought Ryan was good in discussing Dewey's early Congregationalit upbringing and his falling away from Christianity. I also thought Ryan placed good emphasis on the Hegelian idealism which Dewey adopted early in his career. The book could have used a fuller discussion of the nature of Hegelian idealism. As I read Ryan's book, I thought that Dewey retained even more of a Hegelian influence in his later thought than Ryan recognized. Dewey's emphasis on holistic thinking and on the relationship of the community and the individual remains Hegelian -- a naturalized Hegelianism as Ryan points out.

Ryan discussed Dewey's educational work at the University of Chicago. This is the aspect of Dewey's work that is best known. As Ryan points out, Dewey is often criticized for the shortcomings of American education. He is blamed, probably unjustifiably, for a lack of discipline and academic knowledge in too many American students. Ryan does point out, in fairness, that Dewey's actual educational theory was obscure in many points and undeveloped in specifics. It is hard to know just what Dewey had in mind, but it surely was not laxness and a deference to the wishes of young children.

I thought the strongest aspect of Ryan's book was his discussion of Dewey's mature philosophical writings, in particular "Experience and Nature" "A Common Faith" and "Art and Experience." In these works, Dewey tried to develop a philosophical pragmatism which was based on science and secularism. He denied the existence of an objective independent truth which science tries to capture and also denied subjectivism. Dewey recognized that human experience could be viewed from many perspectives and he struggled to explain how many of the goals of the religious and artistic life were consistent with science and secularism. He wanted to show them as perspectives equally important to the scientific perspective and to disclaim a concept of truth as "out there" rather than as sought,developed and made through human social activity. Dewey's position is difficult and, to his credit, Ryan does not simplify it. Ryan's exposition is challenging and made me want to read some of Dewey for myself.

A great deal of Ryan's book is devoted to Dewey's career as a public intellectual commenting on the issues of the day, as he saw them. Dewey travelled to Russia and China, investigated the Russian show trials of Trotsky and others, supported American participation in WW I, and advocated social liberalism. Ryan discusses Dewey's positions fully and intelligently and explores how Dewey's issues remain alive in the late 20th (and early 21st)century. The discussion of American political life and of the role of ideas is fascinating even though I frequently did not agree either with Dewey or with Ryan.

Ryan recognizes the paradoxical nature of the work of this American thinker. Dewey was a philosopher who critized sharply thought and reflection separate from action. He was a secularist who saw the importance of religion. He recognized the nature of industrial society but stressed the importance of art and culture. Dewey was, as Ryan points out in his conclusion
something of a visionary of the everyday. Ryan writes (page 269): "It was his ability to infuse the here and now with a kind of transcendent glow that overcame the denseness and awkwardness of his prose and the vagueness of his message and secured such widespread conviction. .... He will remain for the forseeable future a rich source of intellectual nourishment for anyone not absolutely locked within the anxieties of his or her own heart and not absolutely despondent about the prospects of the modern world."