The author wrote this essay during the 1950s for the Ford Foundation's Fund for the Advancement of Education, which at that time was encouraging historians to take a fresh look at history of education. Intended to stimulate discussion within the Fund's Committee on the Role of Education in American History, the essay, here condensed, was never published. In his attempt to broaden the range of research concerns for educational historians, Professor Storr explored the meanings of education as it contributed to the making of the American character. The author was asked to add commentary, set here in italics to distinguish it from the original text. Storr's reflections arc as pertinent to scholarship today as they were to the revitalization of history of education twenty years ago.

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