This essay is an attempt at an institutional history of the History of Education Society (HES), from its inception in 1960 to the present day. As an institutional history, a genre with which I am generally, and not altogether favorably associated, it is not an intellectual history. Thus, many of the intellectual currents and cross-currents, as well as the History of Education Quarterly (HEQ), the journal of the HES in which these intellectual movements were featured, are slighted in this presentation. I deal extensively with one intellectual movement within the field, the Bernard Bailyn-Lawrence Cremin critique of the field as too institutional and intellectually narrow, because it was so intimately involved with the creation of the HES, and the attendant de-emphasis, if not rejection, of the institutional history of education that was dominant in the pre-HES history of education organization. I hope that what follows will be interesting enough to my listeners and readers to explain to them the reasons for my choices.

In 1827, two years after its incorporation as a college and six years removed from its founding as a “collegiate institution,” Amherst College revamped its curriculum into what it called a “parallel course of study.” In this new scheme, students were allowed to follow one of two tracks during their college years. Courses in mathematics, geography, logic, rhetoric, the natural sciences, philosophy, and theology were still required of all students, but they were permitted to substitute a variety of new offerings in place of instruction in ancient languages and literature—choices ranging from French or Spanish to drawing or civil engineering. The faculty of the college were clear in their rationale for such a change: echoing the sentiments of the nation's President John Quincy Adams, they argued that theirs was “emphatically an Age of Improvement,” one which necessitated altering the structure of the college course. They warned that if the college did not reform its course offerings it would witness the rise of new institutions better equipped to provide for the needs of young men, threatening the existence of Amherst and other colleges committed to liberal education. “Let our Colleges promptly lead on in the mighty march of improvement,” they stated, “and all will be well; but let them hesitate and linger a little longer, and many of their most efficient friends will go on without them.”

In August 1945, Imperial Japan surrendered to the Allied Powers. From September 1945 to April 1952, the United States–the most dominant power among the victorious nations–occupied the defeated country.