John Dewey

Lana F. Rakow is a professor emerita of communication at the University of North Dakota. She earned a doctorate in cultural studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and is the author or editor of four other books about gender and feminism.

Preface – Acknowledgements – Notes About Dewey Citations – A Reintroduction to Dewey – A Field Remembers and Forgets – Dewey’s Turn to Communication – Dewey’s Turn to Culture – A Philosophy With Communication – From Machinery to Eloquent Media – Index.

“For what purposes is John Dewey’s work relevant, a philosopher once asked. Lana F. Rakow offers a comprehensive critical account of the enormous range of Dewey’s intellectual agendas and activist leadership. Whether readers have only heard passing references to the (in)famous Dewey-Lippmann debate or already appreciate Dewey’s call for public-minded communication processes and systems that support participatory democracy, Rakow clarifies Dewey’s approach to communication, leaving no doubt that he deserves a central place in communication studies.”
—Linda Steiner, University of Maryland

“We owe Lana F. Rakow a debt of gratitude for this concise, well-written introduction to John Dewey as a pragmatist philosopher, activist, and public intellectual whose systematic thought on communication in relation to culture, technology, inquiry, art, community, and democracy is foundational to communication studies yet widely underappreciated. Grounding her argument in Dewey’s correspondence and notes of his early lectures as well as his voluminous publications and relevant secondary sources, Rakow criticizes poorly documented claims and conventional wisdom about Dewey that pepper the communication literature. Every serious student of communication should read this book.”
—Robert T. Craig, University of Colorado Boulder