Making the Self-Made American: The Original Meanings and Purposes of America’s Public Schools

In Making the Self-Made American, Professor Neem seeks to answer a simple question: why, in the age of individualism, did so many parents, taxpayers, and policymakers invest significant resources to build and to support public school systems? The answer is deceptively simple: new ideas about democracy and freedom combined with the economic imperative of “making it” in a free market economy. In other words, engaging in self-making was difficult and challenging and people had to prepare for it. Failure, both spiritual and economic, was a very real possibility. Public schools thus provided what young people needed to face the world. In short, American individualism required collective effort.