Abstract

A basic argument to justify state control of American education in the 19th century was that public education could and should improve society. This view is usually associated with Horace Mann and other advocates of the common school. It was best articulated by Lester Frank Ward, who, along with Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer, was one of the founders of sociology. Ward viewed public education as the key to transforming American society from individualism to collectivism, which is why Henry Steele Commager considers him the “philosophical architect of the welfare state.”

Born in 1841 in Joliet, Illinois, the youngest often children, Ward grew up in humble circumstances.