The Knowledge Revolution 525blows shattered the laissez-faire extremism of Herbert
Spencer. In “Great Men and Their Environment”
(1880) James argued that social changes were brought
about by the actions of geniuses whom society had
selected and raised to positions of power, rather than
by the impersonal force of the environment. Such rea-
soning fitted the preconceptions of rugged individual-
ists yet encouraged those dissatisfied with society to
work for change. Educational reformers like John
Dewey, the institutionalist school of economists, set-
tlement house workers, and other reformers adopted
pragmatism eagerly. James’s philosophy did much to
revive the buoyant optimism that had characterized
the pre-Civil War reform movement.
Yet pragmatism brought Americans face-to-face
with somber problems. While relativism made them
optimistic, it also bred insecurity, for there could be
no certainty, no comforting reliance on any eternal
value in the absence of absolute truth. Pragmatism
also seemed to suggest that the end justified the
means, that what worked was more important than
what ought to be. At the time of James’s death in
1910, the Commercial and Financial Chronicle
pointed out that the pragmatic philosophy was helpful
to businessmen in making decisions. By emphasizing
practice at the expense of theory, the new philosophy
encouraged materialism, anti-intellectualism, and
other unlovely aspects of the American character. And
what place had conventional morality in such a sys-
tem? Perhaps pragmatism placed too much reliance
on the free will of human beings, ignoring their
capacity for selfishness and self-delusion.
The people of the new century found pragma-
tism a heady wine. They would quaff it freely and
enthusiastically—down to the bitter dregs.
The Knowledge Revolution
Improvements in public education and the needs of
an increasingly complex society for every type of
intellectual skill caused a veritable revolution in how
knowledge was discovered, disseminated, and put to
use. Observing the effects of formal education on
their children, many older people were eager to expe-
rience some of its benefits. Nothing so well illustrates
the desire for new information as the rise of the
Chautauqua movement, founded by John H.
Vincent, a Methodist minister, and Lewis Miller, an
Ohio manufacturer of farm machinery. Vincent had
charge of Sunday schools for the Methodist church.
In 1874 he and Miller organized a two-week summer
course for Sunday school teachers on the shores of
Lake Chautauqua in New York. Besides instruction,
they offered good meals, evening songfests around
the campfire, and a relaxing atmosphere—all for $6
for the two weeks.
The forty young teachers who attended were
delighted with the program, and soon the leafy shore
of Lake Chautauqua became a city of tents each sum-
mer as thousands poured into the region from all over
the country. The founders expanded their offerings to
include instruction in literature, science, government,
and economics. Famous authorities, including, over
the years, six presidents of the United States, came to
lecture to open-air audiences on every subject imagin-
able. Eventually Chautauqua supplied speakers to read-
ing circles throughout the country; it even offered
correspondence courses leading over a four-year period
to a diploma, the program designed, in Vincent’s
words, to give “the college outlook” to persons who
had not had the opportunity to obtain a higher edu-
cation. Books were written specifically for the pro-
gram, and a monthly magazine, theChautauquan,
was published.
Such success provoked imitation, and by 1900
there were about 200 Chautauqua-type organiza-
tions. Intellectual standards in these programs varied
greatly; in general they were very low. Entertainment
was as important an objective as enlightenment.
Musicians (good and bad), homespun humorists,
inspirational lecturers, and assorted quacks shared
the platform with prominent preachers and scholars.
Moneymaking undoubtedly motivated many of the
entrepreneurs who operated the centers, all of which,
including the original Chautauqua, reflected the pre-
vailing tastes of the American people—diverse,
enthusiastic, uncritical, and shallow. Nevertheless theThe first commercially successful typewriter, manufactured in
quantity beginning in 1874. It used the QWERTY keyboard found on
later typewriters—and eventually found on computer keyboards.