Since Dewey’s career and public services were even more extensive and varied than his writings, a knowledge of them is necessary for any adequate interpretation of his ideas and publications. This big and important biography traces the events of Dewey’s ninety-two years and provides the chronology on which future scholarship must build.
By studying original source materials in Burlington and Charlotte, Vermont; Oil City, Pennsylvania; the University of Vermont; the Johns Hopkins University; the University of Michigan; the University of Minnesota; the University of Chicago; Columbia University; by combing newspapers, correspondence collections, institutional records, and particularly by establishing personal contact and communication with family members and colleagues, Professor Dykhuizen has been able to develop a comprehensive, minutely accurate, definitive portrait of John Dewey. Without point of view or thesis, the book systematically examines the life and mind of the man often called the philosopher of American democracy.
