The (Anti-)Ideological Origins of Bernard Bailyn's Education in the Forming of American Society

Bibliographic Data

ID5788487
AuthorsThomas Fallace (0000-0002-5417-7077, William Paterson University, corresponding author), Thomas D Fallace
Year2018
Volume58
Issue3
Pages315-337
Publication date2018-07-13
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistory of Education Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-2680 • E-ISSN: 1748-5959
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/heq.2018.13
OpenAlexW2883264403
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited79

Bernard Bailyn's Education in the Forming of American Society represents, perhaps, the most significant text in the history of the field. In this essay, I argue that Bailyn's classic text can, and should, be contextualized in the post-World War II intellectual milieu of consensus liberalism that overtly rejected ideological commitment. Bailyn and other postwar consensus liberals considered academic research, conducted free from political ideology, to be the best antidote to the totalitarian thought of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Bailyn's famous text reflected the values of postwar consensus liberalism by rejecting the ideological commitments of the interwar period and embracing the objective, scientific values of the 1950s as reflected in the new intellectual and cultural history. Bailyn's emphasis on cultural-intellectual history as the best corrective for totalitarian thinking reflected the aspirations, hopes, and fears of his own moment in time, in the same way the progressives' focus on conflict and reform reflected theirs

Academic Freedom and Politics · American History and Culture · Research, Science, and Academia

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