1. Since this paper deals with but one aspect of Beard's long career, much biographical material has been omitted. Those who wish to review his life in full will find Beale, Howard K. (ed.), Charles A. Beard: A Reappraisal (Lexington, 1954) and Borning, Bernard C., The Political and Social Thought of Charles A. Beard (Seattle, 1962) very helpful vehicles.Google Scholar

2. The book in question, Beard's first, is The Industrial Revolution (London, 1901). In collaboration with Walter Vrooman, Beard also helped found Ruskin College at Oxford in 1899.Google Scholar

3. This two-volume set was obviously written for use by university students. Robinson and Beard deplored the students' lack of knowledge about “recent events” and set out to correct the “common defect” of the history texts of their time, namely, compulsive antiquarianism. An abridged version of Robinson's accompanying book of readings in European history, “intended especially for high schools,” was made available to interested parties. See the Introduction and Announcements in Harvey Robinson, James and Beard, Charles A., The Development of Modern Europe II (New York, 1908).Google Scholar

4. During this period Beard was cool to abstractions. Metaphysics and theory, in the harsh light of social and economic developments, at times seemed irrelevant to him. Given his background and surroundings prior to 1914, Beard's realistic, tough-minded, independent preference for external matters over philosophical constructs seems not at all surprising. This is not to say that his philosophical armory was bare, nor that he sensed no other pattern than that implicit in Progressive economics. It is, rather, to suggest that Beard chose to amplify the practical over the ideational as a means of redressing the inadequacies of the past.Google Scholar

5. Beard, Charles A., “The Use of Sources in Instruction in Government and Politics,” The History Teacher's Magazine, I (November, 1909), 49–50.Google Scholar

6. Beard, Charles A. and Beard, Mary R., American Citizenship (New York, 1914). The typical questions the Beards posed for pupil “research” were not only indicative of the times-but highly loaded and often rhetorical. For example: “How may newspapers distort the truth?”; “Why should we have respect for the law?”; How many saloons in your township and county?”; “What is the reason for so much adulteration in modern manufacturing?”; and “Is your village jail fit to shut prisoners up in?”Google Scholar

7. Beard, Charles A., “Politics and Education,” Teachers College Record, XVII (May, 1916), 226.Google Scholar

8. Beard's most pungent essay on the place of the concept of Progress in history is his Introduction to J. P. Bury's The Idea of Progress (New York, 1955), written in December, 1931, for the 1932 edition of Bury's work.Google Scholar

9. Beard, Charles A., “The University and Democracy,” The Dial, LXIV (April 11, 1918), 335–336.Google Scholar

10. Beard, Charles A., “Propaganda in the Schools,” The Dial, LXVI (June 14, 1919), 598–599.Google Scholar

11. Beard of course abhorred obvious, juvenile attempts at persuasion. He did not deny either the existence or value of certain types of propaganda. “Democracy is founded on propaganda,” he wrote, “on the right of citizens to expound their ideas and convictions and to appeal to fellow citizens for support.” This he defined as “open” propaganda-as opposed to “secret,” nefarious propaganda. See Charles A. Beard, “The Trend in Social Studies,” The Historical Outlook, XXX (December, 1929), 369–372.Google Scholar

12. Two such texts were: Beard, Charles A. and Bagley, William C., A First Book in American History (New York, 1920) which was “designed to include the richest possible equipment for American citizenship” and Our Old World Background (New York, 1922), meant to reduce provinciality and offer pupils a look at “the best in all the past and in all nations.” A comprehensive statement of the sales and earnings of Beard's works as of 1949 may be found in Charles A. Beard: An Appraisal, op. cit., 310-312.Google Scholar

13. Beard, Charles A., “History and Travel,” Proceedings of the Association of History Teachers of the Middle States and Maryland, XXII (May, 1924), 46. Beard was chosen president of this association in 1931.Google Scholar

14. Beard, Charles A., “History in the Public Schools,” New Republic, LII (November 16, 1927), 350.Google Scholar

15. The Historical Outlook, op. cit., 372.Google Scholar

16. For example, see Beard's editorships of Toward Civilization (London, 1930), America Faces the Future (New York, 1932), and A Century of Progress (New York, 1933); collaborative efforts such as The American Leviathan (New York, 1930), The Future Comes: A Study of the New Deal (New York, 1933); and the re-issuance of his 1916 Amherst lectures, The Economic Basis of Politics (New York, 1934).Google Scholar

17. Beard, Charles A., The Republic (New York, 1943), 340.Google Scholar

18. Beard, Charles A., “Books for Building Stones,” The National Parent-Teacher Magazine, XXX (September, 1935), 18. Beard took the opportunity in this piece to criticize poor texts, hand-me-down books, the influence of the Depression, “highbrows,” noise, and “self-liquidating public works.”Google Scholar

19. See two articles by Beard: “The Task Before Us,” The Social Studies, XXV (May, 1934), 215; and “Freedom of Teaching,” The Social Frontier, I (March, 1935), 18. The latter also contained pieces by Boyd H. Bode, Merle Curti, John Dewey, and Lewis Mumford and was edited by George S. Counts-an example of the intellectual company Beard preferred to keep.Google Scholar

20. See Beard, Charles A., The Nature of the Social Sciences in Relation to Objectives of Instruction (New York, 1934), 65; and “History as Actuality,” Progressive Education, XV (March, 1938), 243.Google Scholar

21. Beard, Charles A. and Bagley, William C., The History of the American People (New York, 1934), iv.Google Scholar

22. Beard, Charles A. and Carr, William G., Schools in the Story of Culture (Washington, 1935), 28. This pamphlet consisted of articles written by Beard and Carr for the November, 1934, through May, 1935, issues of the NEA Journal. Google Scholar

23. The condensed speech appeared as an article entitled “The Scholar in an Age of Conflicts,” NEA Journal, XXV (April, 1936), 105.Google Scholar

24. See Beard's comments in “Education Enriched By Living,” NEA Journal, XXVII (November, 1938), 227–228.Google Scholar

25. Despite the sincerity of Beard's intentions and the extent of his experience, one must read his words on education with a sharp eye to his biases. Beard seldom could resist an opportunity to exercise his personal peeves, and an educational circumstance suited him as well as any other. For example, before nearly 1,000 educators in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on February 24, 1935, Beard verbally fricasseed William Randolph Hearst as a man who willfully assassinated scholarship by “every method known to yellow journalism.” The audience, it was reported, “rose and cheered for several minutes.” And in an article satirically entitled “A Lesson in Civics,” Beard wondered how public school civics teachers would explain to their young citizens-to-be the irregularities in railroad financing revealed by a U. S. Senate sub-committee led by Senator Burton K. Wheeler. See: New Republic, LXXXII (March 6, 1935), 86; and The Social Frontier, IV (October, 1937), 9-10.Google Scholar

26. Beard, Charles A., “Education under the Nazis,” Foreign Affairs, XIV (April, 1936), 438. Beard always contended that America was a republic, not a true democracy. His explanation to public school pupils of the fine difference between the two may be found in American Citizenship, op. cit., 68-69, but, briefly, it hinged on Beard's belief that until all our people enjoyed equality we could not reach the “ultimate.” Our Founding Fathers had created a “representative republic” and we, since 1789, had only refined it somewhat.Google Scholar

27. For Beard's general “principles” on this subject, see Educational Policies Commission of the National Education Association, The Unique Function of Education in a Democracy (Washington, 1937).Google Scholar

28. See Beard's article, “Democracy and Education,” Social Research, IV (September, 1937), 396–397.Google Scholar

29. For example, the Department of Interior's Office of Education proudly announced in 1933 that it had “invited” Beard to submit a book list for high school libraries which would “acquaint teachers and pupils with facts, known and unknown, about this new world we are entering.” School Life, XVIII (January, 1933), 86.Google Scholar

30. Of the 281 articles Beard wrote on a wide variety of subjects during his career, approximately 12 per cent were directly relevant to education. See Charles A. Beard: An Appraisal, op. cit., 269-275.Google Scholar