Everett Dean Martin

Everett Dean Martin (July 5, 1880 – May 10, 1941) was an American minister, writer, journalist, instructor, lecturer, social psychologist, social philosopher, and an advocate of adult education. He was an instructor and lecturer at The New School for Social Research in New York City from 1921 to 1929, and served on the board of directors of The New School from 1925 to 1932. He was the final director of the People's Institute of Cooper Union in New York City from 1922 to 1934. Martin was born in Jacksonville, Illinois, on July 5, 1880. Graduating with honors at the age of 24 from Illinois College in Jacksonville, he moved on to Chicago, attending McCormick Theological Seminary from 1904 until his ordination as a Congregational Minister in 1907. Martin received a Litt.D. (Doctor of Letters) degree from Illinois College in 1907. He was best known for his advocacy of the liberal education of adults, which he saw as "an antidote to both the irrationality of the crowd and the power of propaganda."

Personal life In 1907, he married Esther W. Kirk of Jacksonville, Illinois. They had three children: Mary, Margaret, and Elizabeth.

From 1906 to 1908, Martin was pastor of the First Congregational Church (The First Church of Lombard) of Lombard, Illinois. From 1908 to 1911, Martin was pastor of the People's Church in Dixon, Illinois.

Martin was a featured columnist for the Des Moines Register during the years 1914–1915.

In 1915, his successful life took a radical shift in course. He divorced his wife of eight years and left the professional ministry. He moved to New York and began writing for the New York Globe. Over the next 20 years, Martin developed into a successful writer and forged a national reputation as a charismatic public lecturer, often attracting a crowd of a thousand or more at the People's Institute, a major center for adult education in New York City. Martin's second marriage in 1915 to Persis Eastman Rowell also ended in divorce, they had one son, Everett Eastman Martin. In March 1928, John Dewey responded to a request from Marie Mattingly Meloney, editor of the New York Herald-Tribune Sunday Magazine, and offered his recommendations on recently published texts on education. Dewey wrote, "I think the best educational books of recent publication are…Martin, The Meaning of a Liberal Education. This was not the first time Dewey recommended Everett Dean Martin's book. In 1927, the editors of the Journal of the National Education Association approached Dewey and asked, "What book have you recently found especially worthwhile? Something that you have read easily, eagerly, and with profit, either in the field of education or out of it." Dewey identified two books; one of them was Martin's The Meaning of a Liberal Education. Cartwright went on to say in his eulogy for Martin, published in the Journal of Adult Education, that:

". . . Thousands who had heard him lecture in all parts of the United States, more thousands who had read his numerous books and articles on philosophical and psychological subjects, and the large audience which for years listened to his notable Friday night addresses and discussions in the Great Hall of Cooper Union in New York, all attested to the challenging qualities of his mind and heart."

Selected works The Behavior of Crowds (1920) The Mob Mind Vs. Civil Liberty (1920) The Mystery of Religion (1924) Psychology: What it has to Teach You about Yourself and Your World (1924) The Meaning of a Liberal Education (1926) Are We Victims of Propaganda, Our Invisible Masters: A Debate with Edward Bernays, The Forum, pp. 142-150, March 1929 (1929) Liberty (1930) The Conflict of the Individual and the Mass (1932) Civilizing Ourselves: Intellectual Maturity in the Modern World (1932) Psychology and Its Use (1933) Farewell to Revolution (1935) Philosophical Background of Current Economic and Social Problems (1938) Some Principles of Political Behavior (1939) A Philosophical Analysis of the Present World Conflict (1940)