American Education, Democracy, and the Second World War
Edition: 1 edition
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: October 30, 2007
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 272
ISBN-13: 9781403984210
Subjects: History; History - General History; History: World; Study & Teaching; United States - 20th Century; History / Social History; Social History; 20th century; Aims and objectives; Education; Education and the war; United States; World War, 1939-1945
Description: American Education, Democracy, and the Second World War examines how U.S. educational institutions during World War II responded to the dilemma of whether to serve as ₃weapons₄ in the nation's arsenal of democracy or ₃citadels₄ in safeguarding the American way of life. By studying the lives of wartime Americans, as well as nursery schools, elementary and secondary schools, and universities, Charles Dorn makes the case that although wartime pressures affected educational institutions to varying degrees, these institutions resisted efforts to be placed solely in service of the nation's war machine. Instead, Dorn argues, American education maintained a sturdy commitment to fostering civic mindedness in a society characterized by rapid technological advance and the perception of an ever-increasing threat to national security.