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PITHY QUOTE FROM Dewey: Correspondence (Comprehensive Edition)

Open quotes
I hope that when the public mind is somewhat at rest on the subject of "sciences" in education, there may be a humble agitation in favor of smuggling philosophy in somewhere; & that it will be found not altogether absurd to urge that our theology, our politics, and possibly even our science itself would be none the worse for thorough and scientific treatment of Philosophy in our Universities & colleges.

The Correspondence of John Dewey, 1871-2011 (I-IV Comprehensive Edition) Volume 1: 1871-1918, 1884.01.17 (00429): John Dewey to William Torrey Harris

The Correspondence of John Dewey, 1858-2011 (I-IV). Comprehensive Edition book cover

The Correspondence of John Dewey, 1858-2011 (I-IV). Comprehensive Edition

ISBN: 978-1-57085-294-7

Language: English

MARC Records



John Dewey, 1932. Charcoal and chalk on paper, by Samuel Johnson Woolf. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of the artist’s daughters, Muriel Woolf Hobson and Dorothy Woolf Ahern.

The comprehensive electronic edition of letters to, from, and about John Dewey. Larry Hickman, Director of the Center for Dewey Studies at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, is the electronic editor.

The Comprehensive Edition contains over 1200 new letters, mostly dealing with correspondence between Albert Barnes and Dewey, provided courtesy of the Barnes Foundation. It includes a foreword by the Director of the Center for Dewey Studies, Matthew Brown.


List of Contents

  • Vol. I: 1858-1918

    • Letters of Dewey's family and the family of his first wife, Alice Chipman
    • Dewey's graduate school years and his years at the University of Michigan and the University of Minnesota
    • His marriage and family life
    • His decade at the University of Chicago and the founding of the "Dewey School"
    • His move to Columbia University
    • His role as a founder of the American Association of University Professors and his political activities during World War One
  • Vol. II: 1919-1939

    • Correspondence pertaining to Dewey's lectures in Japan and China
    • His visits to Turkey, Mexico, and the Soviet Union
    • The death of his wife Alice
    • His first retirement from Columbia University
    • His activism during the Great Depression
    • His role as chair of the Trotsky inquiry
    • His second retirement from Columbia University
  • Vol. III: 1940-1953

    • Correspondence pertaining to his defense of academic freedom during World War Two and the Cold War
    • His defense of Bertrand Russell
    • His second marriage to Roberta Lowitz Grant
    • His ninetieth birthday celebration
    • His death in 1952 and the correspondence that followed
  • Vol. IV: 1953-2011

    • Correspondence pertaining to the disposition of Dewey's literary estate
    • The role of Dewey's second wife, Roberta, and her death in 1970
    • The John Dewey Foundation and the role of Foundation President Sidney Hook and others in the disposition of Dewey's papers and effects
    • The events that led to the publication of the 37 volumes of the Collected Works
    • Competition for the Dewey Papers and their acquisition by Southern Illinois University
    • An interview with Collected Works editor Dr. Jo Ann Boydston


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