1920s > People
John Dewey
Contemporary Civilization's first teachers were all students of Columbia philosopher John Dewey and Dewey's ideas — best summarized in Democracy and Education (1916) — informed the course's content and small-group format.
For Dewey the perfection of democracy was humanity's highest ideal and he intended his philosophy to inspire change. Dewey held that all humans – through their capacity to reflect on past experience – can improve their condition. Just two things were required: educators must teach students to think for themselves and political reformers must restrain wealthy interests so that Americans might advance their common interests through liberal-democratic institutions.
Dewey arrived at Columbia in 1905 after a decade at the University of Chicago where his Laboratory School ignited the "progressive education" movement for which he is still best known. During his 25 years at Columbia, Dewey became a major figure advocating for labor unions, women's rights and democratic movements. Dewey's thought — which CC founders John Coss and John Herman Randall called "naturalistic humanism" — continues to influence the course's evolution.
John Jacob Coss
Coss was equal parts assistant to President Nicholas Murray Butler and Columbia College Dean Herbert Hawkes as well as a tireless college instructor and administrator. He was probably the most influential of Contemporary Civilization's creators. Coss graduated from Union Theological Seminary in 1909 but opted to forgo ordination. After spending WWI with the U.S. Army's Personnel Department, the "Colonel," as students and younger colleagues sardonically referred to him, returned to Columbia. Here he served as a mentor to two generations of CC instructors, coordinating the writing and publication of CC's syllabi and textbooks through the 1920s and 1930s.
John Erskine
As both a student and teacher, John Erskine's association with Columbia spanned nearly 40 years. He received his bachelor's degree from Columbia in 1900, his master's the following year, and his doctorate in 1903. After teaching English at Amherst College, Erskine returned to Columbia in 1909 as a professor of literature, a position he kept until officially retiring from the University in 1937. From 1928 to 1937 the very versatile Erskine was on "indefinite leave" from Columbia while he served as the first president of the Julliard School of Music.
In 1919, Erskine instituted Columbia College's General Honors course, a two-year undergraduate seminar that would later inspire "Masterworks of Western Literature," now commonly known as "Literature Humanities," the second course in Columbia's Core Curriculum. Instructors in General Honors taught the classics in translation instead of the original Latin or Greek, a then radical new approach to humanities instruction. Although he never taught in Columbia's Core, Erskine's influence on general education extended beyond Columbia College to affect all of American higher education.
Letter from Sterling Lamprecht to John J. Coss, 1928
As seen in this Thanksgiving invitation, CC's early instructors forged strong personal bonds in the process of creating and teaching the course. Indeed, it was through the constant communication and socializing with each other, and with students, that they stoked enthusiasm for the course and kept it attuned to its times.
