Executive Summary - Making Citizens Report

David Randall

  • Article
  • January 09, 2017

Main author: David Randall, NAS director of communications. Contributors: Ashley Thorne, NAS executive director; and Peter Wood, NAS president.

A new movement in American higher education aims to transform the teaching of civics. This report is a study of what that movement is, where it came from, and why Americans should be concerned. What we call the “New Civics” redefines civics as progressive political activism. Rooted in the radical program of the 1960s’ New Left, the New Civics presents itself as an up-to-date version of volunteerism and good works. Though camouflaged with soft rhetoric, the New Civics, properly understood, is an effort to repurpose higher education.

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Image: William Meyers, Times Square souvenir shop, September 15, 2010http://www.williammeyersphotography.com/works/?works_id=19&img=12

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