ABSTRACT

Of the four countries discussed in this part the U.S.A. alone is an essentially new country. England, France and Russia can trace back their past for more than a thousand years and in spite of changes introduced by revolutions and radical reforms in these countries their national characters and historical traditions remained the basic influence in their development. America, on the contrary, is still in the making; her past is so short that, from the European point of view, it is part of her present and as such cannot yet play the r61e of stabilising force as in Europe. Indeed in the American estimate the past is ballast in its original sense of a “worthless load” and they often pride themselves on its absence. In such conditions America looks forward and believes that tomorrow is always better than today. This outlook was influenced by the circumstances of the first settlements, by the constantly moving frontier and by the masses of immigrants who passionately wanted to forget their past. The first settlers fled from the persecutions of central governments in Europe because they represented a deviation from accepted traditions, and thus they brought over with them a distrust of the established order and a negative attitude towards the past. The pioneering conditions of the moving frontier in the West dominated by the law of the survival of the fittest promoted independence, initiative and also a certain restlessness and contempt for the written law. The millions of immigrants escaping from the economic misery of Europe were inspired by the tales of unlimited opportunities in America and a burning desire to get rich in the shortest possible time. All these causes added to and consolidated the main fact of American history, her revolt against Europe and the birth of a new and independent nation. The American philosophy of life and her educational system unavoidably reflected the conditions of American growth and tended towards pragmatism and relativism. John Dewey is the representative American philo sopher and her leading educational pioneer. His pragmatism and experimentalism gave full expression to the frontier spirit of America and in their turn profoundly influenced the theory and practice of contemporary American education. The deviation from Europe, therefore, is marked, but nevertheless America is closely bound up with European history and culture. All her peculiar features represent minority movements of Europe rejected at home. We have seen in the historical chapters that the two fundamental factors which shaped American tradition—Puritan ism and Humanism—were widespread European movements, born and grown to stature in Europe; and although rejected in some parts of Europe they left deep traces even in those countries which are officially traditionalist—Catholic, or authoritarian— Marxist. In so far as America shares this heritage she is a part of the European cultural community and more particularly of Western Europe.