On October 30, 1970, almost eight years ago to the day, I gave a paper entitled, “The Quest for Orderly Change,” before the Midwest Regional History of Education Society in which I attempted to critically analyze some of the key assumptions of the new liberal philosophy which have occupied the center stage of American social and educational reform in much of the twentieth century. This afternoon I would like to reflect back on the conditions which gave rise to that interpretation; on some of the research that has been done in the intervening years on that topic; on some of the criticism engendered; and lastly to sketch some of the areas which need more careful and extended inquiry.

Writing in 1940, the University of Pennsylvania's historian Edward Potts Cheyney characterized the entire period of that institution's history between 1829 and 1880 as “the renaissance.” Yet as proud as he was of “the beginnings of expansion” which occurred during that era, climaxed by the move to a new site in what was then still undeveloped West Philadelphia in the early 1870's, those sixty-one years were to be thought of as a prelude to the “era of expansion” itself and the inauguration of “modern times” which began with Dr. William Peppers administration in 1881. Our discussion of Pennsylvania is based on a sample of 691 alumni. Drawn first from the class of 1873 —the first to graduate after that move to a new campus was completed —and then from twenty-five consecutive classes thereafter, they represent those who were in attendance during what were presumably decisive years in this institution's history. Recipients of professional degrees, particularly medical students, make up the bulk of this sample, for these significantly outnumbered those to be found in the College both before and after the Civil War. Indeed although the number of Bachelor degrees awarded at Pennsylvania increased after 1873, the totals for even the peak years of 1886, 1887, and 1889 represented far fewer by way of comparison than the numbers being conferred during the same period at a school like Harvard. According to the sample, non-professional degrees accounted for about one quarter of all the degrees conferred (in course) in the 1870's, and that proportion diminished slightly to about one-fifth as the century drew to a close.

The Anfang movement, centered in Vienna and Berlin from 1912 to 1914, was the twentieth century's first left-wing political youth movement whose main concern was youthful independence from adult authority. The movement took its name from its journal Der Anfang (“The Beginning”). The 3000 members were Austrians and Germans born between 1890 and 1899. Most were urban state secondary school pupils and university students from middle-class families, many of which were artistic, academic and intellectual. A third of the members were Jewish; in Vienna 90% were Jewish. In June 1914 the journal reached a high point of 1000 subscribers.