E. Merrill Root

Edward Merrill Root (January 4, 1895 – October 26, 1973) was an American educator and poet devoted to anti-communist causes.

Biography Root was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of a Congregationalist Church minister. In 1917, he graduated from Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts, where he studied under Robert Frost.

Root was a conscientious objector during World War I. He went to France with the American Friends Service Committee, saw action as an ambulance driver and returned to the United States to study at Andover Theological Seminary, the University of Missouri, and Harvard.

In 1920, he began working at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, as a professor of English literature, where his tenure lasted until his retirement in 1960. While working at Earlham, Root, who had been a devout Quaker and pacifist, emerged as a conservative advocate.

In 1952, Root wrote "Darkness at Noon in American Colleges", an article warning parents of the "polio of collectivism" at American colleges and universities. He then wrote the book Collectivism on the Campus, alleging communism was widespread at colleges, and a few years later, Brainwashing in the High Schools: An Examination of Eleven American History Textbooks. The latter book brought Root fame in conservative circles.

Root became a member of the Textbook Evaluation Committee of Operation Textbook, sponsored by America's Future under the direction of Lucille Cardin Crain.

Selected work Prose

"The Culture of Abundance" (1938) Brainwashing in the High Schools (1958) Collectivism on the Campus America's Steadfast Dream Frank Harris: A Biography The Way of All Spirit

Poetry

Lost Eden Bow of Burning Gold Dawn is Forever Before the Swallow Dares The Seeds of Time Ulysses To Penelope Out Of Our Winter The Light Wind Over Shoulder the Sky Of Perilous Seas Like White Birds Flying Children of the Morning