Robert M. Hutchins: Portrait of an Educator (Centennial Publications of The University of Chicago Press) [Hardcover]

Mary Ann Dzuback (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0226177106 | ISBN-13: 978-0226177106 | Publication Date: November 1, 1991 | Edition: 1

As president of the University of Chicago from 1929 to 1951, Robert Maynard Hutchins came to be one of the most prominent and controversial figures in American higher education. To this day, his vision of what the university should be has given shape to twentieth-century debates over the content and function of education in the United States. In her critical biography, the first to focus on Hutchins' University of Chicago decades, Mary Ann Dzuback gives a full and fascinating account of this complex man—his development, his achievements and failures, and finally, his legacy.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This interesting if somewhat pedestrian book examines the University of Chicago's most famous president and his two missions: Hutchins's "stand on academic freedom" and his "challenge to examine and reexamine the ends of educational institutions." Dzuback, professor of education at Washington University in Missouri, astutely observes how the "evangelical culture" of Hutchins's "quasi-religious" collegiate training at Oberlin relates to the "mixed success" he experienced as dean of Yale Law School and then as head of the University of Chicago: "In effect, when Hutchins 1899-1977 argued for a liberal education . . . in the 1930s, he was arguing for a secular mission for the University of Chicago," a "contemporary translation of Oberlin's nineteenth-century religious mission." While the author notes how Hutchins's "typical short-term commitment to the innovations he devised" during his Chicago tenure (1929-1951) undercut those innovations, her book is full of admiration for the man, alternating between "enormous respect for Hutchins and sheer mystification at his arrogance and stubborn adherence to a collection of ideas that seemed incompatible with the realities of twentieth-century higher educational institutions."
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 404 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (November 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226177106
• ISBN-13: 978-0226177106
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,220,391 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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