During his long life John Dewey contributed in profound and original ways to every field of academic philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political philosophy, aesthetics, and logic. Outside of philosophy, his ideas on education transformed pedagogical methods not only in the United States but throughout the world. He was actively engaged in causes ranging from getting the vote for women and unionizing teachers to defending persecuted intellectuals such as Bertrand Russell and Leon Trotsky, and his incisive, clear, and often impassioned statements on current events made his name familiar to the public at large. His collected works fill thirty-seven volumes, and his vast correspondence could fill many more. Pervading this work, from the most abstract to the most concrete, is Dewey's faith in the possibilities of democracy.

The third of four sons, the first of whom had died in infancy, Dewey was born on 20 October 1859 in Burlington, Vermont, to...