UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Liberty but not License: Publicity, Academic Freedom, and the Professionalization of the Professoriate, 1890-1929 A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education by Zachary James Haberler March 2013 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Margaret A. Nash, Chairperson Dr. Begoña Echeverria Dr. John S. Wills Copyright by Zachary James Haberler 2013 The Dissertation of Zachary James Haberler is approved: Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A work of this size and scope is not possible without the help, guidance, and support of others. I would like to take this opportunity to recognize those who helped make this dissertation possible. I would first like to thank my wife Julia. Without her unwavering support and love throughout my time in the doctoral program, and particularly during the dissertation process, I would not have found the determination and energy to finish. I would also like to thank my parents Linda and Steve for always believing in me and my abilities, and my sister Cassi, whose advice at the end of high school sparked my interest in pursuing advanced education and academic work. I thank the Graduate Division of the University of California Riverside (UCR) for providing significant levels of funding via dissertation fellowships and research grants throughout the dissertation process. Without that financial support, this dissertation would not have been possible. I would also like to thank the archivists in the Special Collections department of the Gelman Library at George Washington University for their assistance in working with the historical records of the American Association of University Professors. In particular, I would like to thank Ashley Locke for helping me before and during my visit. I extend a special thank you to the entire Graduate School of Education for an enriching doctoral experience. I am particularly grateful for my advisor and dissertation chair, Margaret Nash, who provided endless support and belief in my abilities as a iv researcher and a scholar throughout my time at the UCR. The doctoral experience and the dissertation process are full of moments of introspection and self-doubt, and her kind words and encouragement were an integral part of my personal and professional advancement these last six years. I would also like to thank the other members of my dissertation committee, Begoña Echeverria and John Wills, for countless intellectually stimulating conversations and invaluable advice. I like to think of the coursework phase of a doctoral program as a time of intellectual exploration, and I would like to acknowledge a few professors for their roles in my intellectual development. Jim Dillon challenged my thinking and understanding of education more than I ever thought possible. My experiences and conversations with him will continue to have a profound impact on me for years to come. I would also like to recognize Raymond Russell and Jonathan Turner in the Sociology Department at UCR for allowing me to enjoy their courses on historical and contemporary sociological theories. Those experiences have changed the way I view the world and are an important part of my trajectory as a scholar. Finally, I would like to thank John Levin for allowing me to join his small directed research course on the faculty. It was through reading about contemporary faculty issues that I discovered my interest in academic freedom and academic professionalization that led to this dissertation. I would also like to acknowledge the faculty of the History Department at the University of Colorado at Denver for providing valuable historical training during my time in the Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programs. Myra Rich, Marjorie Levine- v Clark, and Carl Pletsch deserve credit for encouraging me to find my voice as a historian and for challenging me to improve my writing before and during the Master’s Thesis process. Carl also deserves recognition for providing inspiration and cultivating my interest in intellectual history. Finally, a doctoral program is only as good as the people who go through it with you, and I had the pleasure of learning and growing with several extraordinary people. Barbara Bolaños, Leigh DelaVictoria, Thomas Deus, Lisa Green, Paul McHenry, and Deb Parr were all extremely helpful listeners, readers, editors, and friends throughout the proposal and dissertation stages of this project. I also extend a special thanks to all members of the History Writing Group, which read countless drafts of conference papers and dissertation chapters and provided a place for me to practice for my oral exam as well as the dissertation defense. vi ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Liberty but not License: Publicity, Academic Freedom, and the Professionalization of the Professoriate, 1890-1929 by Zachary James Haberler Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in Education University of California, Riverside, March 2013 Dr. Margaret A. Nash, Chairperson This historical dissertation explores the public and academic discourse regarding the concept of academic freedom from 1890-1929, with the foundation of the American Association of University Professors in 1915 serving as a general midpoint of the analysis. Throughout this period the public academic freedom discourse was consistently connected to the maintenance and use of publicity on behalf of professors to advance and defend the interests and professional status of the professoriate as well as to inflict symbolic damage on the institutions and individuals who were deemed to be barriers to professorial status. Beginning in the earlier third of this time period, 1890-1910, professors in the sciences, as well as senior scholars and administrators from many disciplines, emphasized an academic freedom that was constrained and operated at a collective department or university-level whereas professors in the social sciences and humanities more commonly advanced academic freedom with no limitations and which vi operated on an individual level. Connected to these competing notions, the academic freedom discourse had a dual-professionalizing role from 1890-1929. It was a means through which professors attempted to legitimate themselves—individually and collectively—in the public eye as well as an important part of the academic professions’ internal struggle to define and redefine itself amidst a changing social and academic landscape. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: Introduction........................................................................................................1 Research Questions and Significance of the Research............................................3 Historical Background: Inherited Concepts and Contexts.......................................5 The Argument and Summary of Chapters.............................................................25 Chapter 2: Historiography, Conceptual Framework, and Methods...................................35 Historiography........................................................................................................35 Conceptual Framework..........................................................................................55 Methods..................................................................................................................62 Chapter 3: Symbolic Struggle in an Age of Publicity: Academic Freedom in the Progressive Era, 1890-1910...................................................................................69 Josiah Royce and Uses of Academic Freedom in the 1890s..................................74 Broad and Free: Academic Freedom for Social Science Intellectuals...................80 Academic Freedom, Professionalism, and Genius: Senior Scholars and Men of Science.......................................................................................................89 Academic Freedom, the Muckraking Spirit, and the Spectre of Agitation..........108 Conclusions..........................................................................................................123 Chapter 4: Academic Freedom and Professional Autonomy: Continuity and Change, 1910-1915............................................................................................................128 Continuity and Change in the Public Discourse..................................................129 James McKeen Cattell, Columbia University, and Academic Governance.........146 Conclusions..........................................................................................................168 Chapter 5: Disciplinary Perspectives on Academic Freedom and the Needs of the Professoriate During the Formation of the AAUP, 1913-1915............................171 The Question of a National Association of University Professors.......................173 The AAUP Constitution and the General Declaration of Principles (1915)........195 Conclusions..........................................................................................................206 Chapter 6: Academic Freedom, Publicity, and the Challenges of War, 1915-1919.........210 Shifts in the Media Treatment of Radicalism.......................................................211 Faculty and AAUP Uses of Academic Freedom..................................................226 viii The AAUP and Publicity, 1915-1919...................................................................240 Conclusions..........................................................................................................252