ABSTRACT
Eduard C. Lindeman had many interests - adult education was only one of them - which he approached as a social scientist and social philosopher. In 1924 Lindeman joined the faculty of the New York School of Social Work, a position that gave him an academic and financial base and a field of practice that he believed had great promise for democratic action. Lindeman’s pursuit of social causes did not spring from mere ‘do-goodism’ instincts. Lindeman wanted ‘a pragmatic and a unifying social science’ that would be a ‘handmaiden’ to those who searched for solutions to problems of social adjustment. Lindeman wrote the report and interpretation, published under the title, Social Education. In the mid-twenties Lindeman interpreted the incipient adult education movement from the cultural approach. As Lindeman had made a European concept of adult education more understandable to Americans, he also extended the progressive education theory of childhood into adulthood.
