History of Public Scholarship

In the United States, public scholarship has its roots in the Enlightenment ideals of the country’s founders, who believed that knowledge should be used to exert power and influence for the good of society (Diggins, 2003). The actual level of public intellectuals’ power has waxed and waned over time, as populism and anti-intellectualism have pushed common, less-educated figures into power. For instance, the U.S. presidential election of 1828 pitted the populist Andrew Jackson against the intellectual John Quincy Adams, with Jackson winning the presidency.

Sources:

Diggins, J.P. (2003) The changing role of the public intellectual in American history. In Melzer, A.M., Weinberger, J., & Zinman, M.R. (eds.), The public intellectual: Between philosophy and politics. pp. 91-108. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.