Radical Visions: Stringfellow Barr, Scott Buchanan, and Their Efforts on behalf of Education and Politics in the Twentieth Century

(Hardback)

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Find a college teacher prepared to risk his career because he is convinced that undergraduate elective curricula must be abandoned and ready to lay out a detailed remedy. Add a partner in full agreement, to share the risk. That is the improbable story of Stringfellow Barr and Scott Buchanan and their 1937 creation, at St. John's College of an all-required four-year curriculum based on the great books. Then add their shared convictions in attacking the Cold War, standing together for civil liberties and against McCarthyism. This story of personal courage is based on Nelson's knowledge and access to unpublished manuscripts and hundreds of letters.v

Reviews

.,."the remarkable story of two remarkable Rhodes scholars who wrought a real revolution in American education"-Staige Blackford Editor, Virginia Quarterly Review
"Radical Visions is an essential book for anyone interested--as we all should be--in public life in mid-century America. It is about much more than education reform; it is about how the best among us hope and work for a better culture and a better world. The stories it tells about St. John's College, the world government movement, and the emergence of an American consciousness of the Third World are all part of the larger story of the struggle to live a thoughtful and good life in the peculiar circumstances of the American Nation."-Peter Temes President, The Great Books Foundation
"Radical Visions weaves together with force and brilliance the lives of some of the greatest thinkers and educators of the twentieth century, the critical questions that World War II and its aftermath forced our society to ask about the purposes of education, and the role that institutions such as St. John's University, the University of Chicago, and Columbia University played in strengthening the spirit of liberal arts education and the purposes for which our Constitution protects our fundamental freedoms... Radical Visions will inspire any young person thinking of a career in education at any level...In focusing on the history of St. John's College, especially Stringfellow Barr and Scott Buchanan, it offers a wonderful example of why our society needs to focus on building institutions, not just individualism and individual heroes."-Gregory Prince, Jr President, Hampshire College
"This is a must read for anyone interested in the history of American ideas in the twentieth century. Stringfellow Barr and Scott Buchanan, once intellectual household names at mid-century but now largely forgotten, are brilliantly brought back to life in this study. Nelson's acute analysis of their ideas raises crucial questions about liberal education and world government during the last half of the twentieth century."-Robert Allen Skotheim President, the Huntington Library, Arts Collection and Botanical Gardens
"This is the story of a friendship between two great but different minds whose collaboration produced St. John's College. Nobody trying to define the Liberal Arts or understand Western tradition should do so without understanding the contribution of these two men."-Thomas H. Kean President, Drew University and former Governor of New Jersey University
"True radicals, Barr and Buchanan understood that a liberal education is the only truly liberating education--and so they spent their great talents and energies freely and generously to make it so. By recalling for us the lives of these principled, provacative educators, Charles Nelson reawakens the profoundly humane and humanizing spirit that inspired their many projects, especially the founding of the new program at St. John's College, Annapolis"-Jeffrey D. Wallin President, American Academy for Liberal Education
.,."a long-overdue reappraisal.Thoroughly researched, tightly argued and clearly written."-Virginia Quartlery Review
...a long-overdue reappraisal.Thoroughly researched, tightly argued and clearly written.-Virginia Quartlery Review
Radical Visions is a fascinating journey into the genesis of one of the twentieth century's, more radical educational departures-an idea that continues to this day on campuses in Annapolis and Santa Fe. Those familiar with St. John's "new program" will appreciate Nelson's carefully crafted and researched work. Educators interested in the liberal arts, and particularly curricular issues, should consider Barr and Buchanan's provocative insights into the liberal arts and the meaning of education. Contrarian leaders would find Buchanan and Barr historical exemplars of the kind of leaders they would like to emulate. Their vision was, and continues to be, truly radical.-History of Education Quarterly
..."a long-overdue reappraisal.Thoroughly researched, tightly argued and clearly written."-Virginia Quartlery Review
"Radical Visions is a fascinating journey into the genesis of one of the twentieth century's, more radical educational departures-an idea that continues to this day on campuses in Annapolis and Santa Fe. Those familiar with St. John's "new program" will appreciate Nelson's carefully crafted and researched work. Educators interested in the liberal arts, and particularly curricular issues, should consider Barr and Buchanan's provocative insights into the liberal arts and the meaning of education. Contrarian leaders would find Buchanan and Barr historical exemplars of the kind of leaders they would like to emulate. Their vision was, and continues to be, truly radical."-History of Education Quarterly

Author Bio

CHARLES A, NELSON is an author and editor, newspaper founder and publisher, and retired management consultant.