This book offers great insight of the thoughts of renowned educators of past centuries, and it powerfully mediates such insight to today's educational practitioners. Frank Pierrepont Graves, American educator, lawyer Decorated Knight of Crown of Belgium, 1925; Officer Legion of Honor, French, 1937. Awarded Butler medal for educational administration, 1927; medal of Academy of Public Education, 1936; gold medal of Holland Society, 1937; American Ednl. Award (Associate Exhibitors), 1941. "I have felt that an account of the life and work of the men who, during the past three centuries, have introduced various innovations and reforms into modern education might contain interest and value for many who would never read a more comprehensive and unified production. I have, however, made some attempt as well to present the social setting of each reformer. Moreover, although the facts of biography are narrated somewhat at length, an effort has been made to eliminate everything that does not seem to have some bearing upon the contributions of the educator under consideration or upon the spread and permanence of his work. Such a treatment, I venture to hope, will prove of service to the general reader and to the student of educational origins whose time is limited. The volume may be used as a reference work, a reading circle book, or even as a text for classes that are not in condition to cope with the complexities of modern educational history. The worth of the book for any of these purposes has probably been heightened by a liberal quotation from the sources in the body of the text and the addition of supplementary readings at the end of each chapter."