A01=George D. Oberle
Agricultural societies
American Museum
American Philosophical Society
Author_George D. Oberle
Category=JNB
Category=JPHV
Category=NHK
Charles Jewett
Charles Willson Peale
charles wilson peale
civil societies
collecting specimens
DC
displaying knowledge
disseminating knowledge
Early republic
east indian Maine society
East Indian Marine Society
engineers
epistemology
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_new_release
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
George Washington
information revolution
Joel Poinsett
Joseph Henry
knowledge institutions
learned societies
lyceums
merican philosophical society
Military Academy
museums
National Museum
National University
political debates
politics of knowledge
Smithsonian
Smithsonian institution
Thomas Jefferson
United State Military Philosophical Society
United States Exploring Expedition
useful knowledge
Washington
Washington D.C.
West Point
Product details
- ISBN 9780813954158
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 30 Dec 2025
- Publisher: University of Virginia Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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Examining the early debates in the United States over how best to educate the constituents of the new nation.
When the founding fathers of the United States inaugurated a system of government that was unprecedented in the modern world, they knew that a functioning democracy required an educated electorate capable of making rational decisions. But who would validate the information that influenced citizens' opinions? By spotlighting various institutions of learning, George Oberle provides a comprehensive look at how knowledge was created, circulated, and consumed in the early American republic.
Many of the founders, including George Washington, initially favored the creation of a centralized national university to educate Americans from all backgrounds. Over the first half of the nineteenth century, however, politicians moved away from any notion of publicly educated laypeople generating useful knowledge. The federal government ultimately founded the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, to be run by experts only. Oberle's insightful analysis of the competing ideas over the nature of education offers food for thought as we continue to grapple with a rapidly evolving media landscape amid contested meanings of knowledge, expertise, and the obligations of citizenship.
When the founding fathers of the United States inaugurated a system of government that was unprecedented in the modern world, they knew that a functioning democracy required an educated electorate capable of making rational decisions. But who would validate the information that influenced citizens' opinions? By spotlighting various institutions of learning, George Oberle provides a comprehensive look at how knowledge was created, circulated, and consumed in the early American republic.
Many of the founders, including George Washington, initially favored the creation of a centralized national university to educate Americans from all backgrounds. Over the first half of the nineteenth century, however, politicians moved away from any notion of publicly educated laypeople generating useful knowledge. The federal government ultimately founded the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, to be run by experts only. Oberle's insightful analysis of the competing ideas over the nature of education offers food for thought as we continue to grapple with a rapidly evolving media landscape amid contested meanings of knowledge, expertise, and the obligations of citizenship.
George D. Oberle III is History Librarian, Associate Term Professor, and the Director of the Center for Mason Legacies at George Mason University.
