General Education in a Free Society (Harvard Redbook)

The 1945 publication General Education in a Free Society, called the Redbook for its hardcover color, was one of the more significant mid-20th-century publications in the field of curriculum studies. Reconfirming the importance of general education in the secondary and postsec-ondary school curriculum and substantiating the role of academic disciplines as a way to construct a high school general education program, the Redbook provided schools and colleges throughout the United States with a clear justification for curriculum design and development. This rationale proved of great importance immediately following World War II when the purposes of secondary education and the tenets of democracy were being questioned. General Education in a Free Society represented a humanist tradition (ala Herbert Kliebard's groupings) and a response to and critique ...