New School: A History of the New School for Social Research

For almost 70 years the New School has been a vital alternative source of adult education for New Yorkers who have sought enlightenment in virtually every subject imaginable. Founded in 1918 by historians Charles Beard and James Harvey Robinson and influenced by the ideas of John Dewey and Thorstein Veblen, the school has advocated personal freedom, artistic and intellectual creativity, scientific rationalism and democratic politics. In this lively story, Rutkoff and Scott, historians at Kenyon College, Ohio, describe the controversies that have surrounded the New School, its administrative problems and the experiences of people who led and taught there during its first 50 yearsamong them many illustrious artists, composers, choreographers, philosophers, social scientists and writers, including Aaron Copland, Kenneth Koch, Robert Heilbroner, Hannah Arendt. (May)