Indicates a desire and need to construct an elaborately detailed and historiographically sophisticated model that would effectively account for the complexity of writing center development and history. Critically examines two models currently in use, the "evolutionary" model and the "dialectic" model. Offers a cultural model of writing center…

Introduces a special issue on critical histories of graphic design with a review of the particular problems identified with the history of graphic design as a field of study and the emerging discipline of graphic design history. Makes a case for the examination of graphic design through its relationships with larger discourses. (SR)

Reviews 50 years of published research literature in American library history that shows a lack of theoretical perspective. Suggests that library historians should join with critical theorists and with social and cultural historians to help place the library in a larger context of social and cultural forces. (Contains 131 references.) (LRW)

Concludes through an examination of recent criticism of William Blake's works that the literary canon is subject to change over time. Suggests that this is true because of both new critical developments and accumulations of new information through research. Argues that even critical theory is affected by such research. (SG)

Commission on Country Life recommendations (1911) for rural education reforms have been misinterpreted as attempts to urbanize rural schools. Reexamination of the Country Life movement might help researchers move from such defensive positions to one that exposes corporate forces profiting from the decline of rural America. Contains 30 references.…

Explores the social foundations and contradictions of formal multilateralism in education since 1945. Discusses the emergence of UNESCO in the 1950s-60s as mediator between developing and donor nations, construction of an ideology linking educational and economic development, the rise of "basic needs" programming in the 1970s, and the…

Traces the development of new research approaches to the history of elementary education. Examines the impact of the 1870 legislation that instituted compulsory education on the elementary school system. Assesses this impact on the school system in the context of the wider social structure. Includes quantitative studies on school attendance, age,…