The Social Frontier: A Critical Reader

by Eugene F. Provenzo Jr. (Editor)

The Social Frontier is the most interesting and important educational journal to emerge from the Great Depression. First published in 1934 by a group of scholars at Teachers College, Columbia University that included George Counts and William Heard Kilpatrick, the magazine represented a conscious act of social and political reconstruction. With a strong «collectivist» orientation, the magazine was widely misperceived as communist in its approach. In fact, its editorial position called for a greater social role for teachers and a more just and equitable system of schooling.
The magazine, which was published for a total of nine years, included articles by major educational and social thinkers of the period from John Dewey to Robert Hutchins and Harold Rugg. Within months of the magazine’s first issue it came under attack by right-wing political groups, particularly the Hurst newspaper chain. The Social A Critical Reader provides a selection of the most interesting and historically important articles from the magazine with a comprehensive introduction and critical commentaries on the selected articles, which are as timely today as they were when first published seventy-five years ago.

282 pages, Hardcover

First published December 21, 2010

Reviews

[Roberto Suarez · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Social Frontier" is a prolific read that makes one think and analyze the structure of our society. Is the education system made to support the current social order or is it made to free individuals to think for themselves and provide opportunities for individuals to fully engage in their own intellectual capacity to build a better future. "What then is the real status quo? Is it the condition of free individuality postulated by the ruling theoretical philosophy, or is it the increasing encroachment of the power of a privileged minority, a power exercised over the liberties of the mass without corresponding responsibility?"

The ideas presented in "The Social Frontier", a collection of articles published by Columbia University in the 1930s and the early 1940s, should assist in providing a structural lens to analyze our modern social order and educational system. One aspect worth noting is that education is highly influential of the future structure of a society. Should it surprise anyone that an institution, such as, the Highlander Folk School inspired and supported the work of Dr. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, but was shut down by the state of Tennessee?

"The Social Frontier" was definitely ahead of its time. It provides an intellectual analysis of academic freedom which leads to a society based on the masses and not the few.