Irrepressible Reformer: A Biography of Melvil DeweyMelvil Dewey (1851-1931) is known for his Decimal Classification system for libraries, but the system was only one endeavor in a feverishly ambitious life. The other Dewey - reformer, businessman, powerful state education officer, resort-empire builder - has long been obscured, as has the dark side of Dewey's personality. Drawing from years of archival research, preeminent Melvil Dewey historian Wayne A. Wiegand has produced the first frank and comprehensive biography of this enigmatic reformer. While providing richer background on Dewey's positive achievements than earlier, reverential biographies, Wiegand reveals his subject as one who was "driven, tense, often arrogant", who had "an obsessive need to control...and self-righteously denied his own racism and class prejudices". Whatever Dewey's virtues and flaws, his influence on libraries and education was profound. To understand his life is to better understand these institutions - then and now - and the people who shape them. |
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agreed ALA Catalog Albany American Library American Library Association Amherst Amherst College Annie Dewey annual argued asked Barnard began bill Boston brary Burned-Over District Butler Mss Canfield Carnegie circular Columbia College committee Company conference copy found Davidson Department Dewey Diary Dewey Mss Dewey's directors discussion Draper elected Emily faculty Florida found in Box funds Funk Gallup Godfrey Dewey Holls interests issue Jews Lake Placid Club later Lauterbach legislature letter Leypoldt librarians Library Association Library Bureau Library Economy Library Journal library school LPEF Mss Marshall Mss McKelway meeting Melvil Dewey membership ment metric moved Nicholas Murray Butler noted NYLA NYSLS NYTr organized Parker Placid South political Poole president public libraries Putnam reading Regents Reid Mss resignation responsibility RWEC Secretary simplified spelling spelling reform tion told trustees University vote wanted Winsor women wrote York York State Library York's
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