Merit

Joseph F. Kett is James Madison Professor of History at the University of Virginia. He is the author of books including The Pursuit of Knowledge Under Difficulties: From Self-Improvement to Adult Education in America, 1750–1990 and coauthor of The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy.

• Introduction: The Faces of Merit1. Republic of Merit2. Merit and the Culture of Public Life3. Small Worlds: Competition in the Colleges4. Making the Grade: Managed Competition and Schooling5. The Scientific Measurement of Merit6. The "Presumption of Merit": Institutionalizing Merit7. Squeeze Play: Merit in Government8. Merit in CrisisEpilogue: Merit, Equality, ConsentNotesIndex

Historian Kett (Univ. of Virginia) provides a wide-ranging history of the idea of merit, tracing its shaping of the US over the course of three centuries. Much has been written about the importance of 'equality' and 'consent' to the American experience; comparatively, 'merit' has been overlooked. For Kett, the US was 'born meritorious,' as advancement by merit was a pillar belief of American revolutionaries.... Summing Up: Recommended.- M.G. Spencer (Choice) "Kett's dense and detailed history argues that the ideal of merit was vital to the founding and development of the United States... This ambitious and wide-ranging book is an apt complement to such indispensable studies of the subject... " —Darrin M. McMahon(The Journal of Interdisciplinary History) Kett's history of decision making about talent is consistently strong and readable.... The bittersweet legacy for American history is a partial triumph of meritocracy. There is a perennial tension in attempts to reconcile equality and excellence. Setting asside abuses of blatant favoritism, a typical situaion is as thus: whether in admission to an academically selective college, in selecting candidates for a judgeship or cabinet position, in being hired as a CEO, or in choosing an award-winning book, the social fact is that often most applicants are qualified, perhaps highly qualified. The corollary is that even talented people can be left out in high-stakes competition. That may not be the way of the world, but as Kett's excellent book documents, it is the American way.- John R. Thelin (The Journal of Southern History) The young American republic seemed a nation peculiarly conducive to recognizing merit, or a 'quality deserving reward' in public life. Here Kett traces the evolution of this ideal from the revolution forward, pointing out how merit frequently clashed with other ideals such as equality.... He succeeds in a tightrope performance, tying what seem disparate phenomena together in a frequently delightful narrative..... Kett's book has opened new historical avenues.(Library Journal) This book provides a veritable treasure trove of historical anecdotes, facts, statistics, and studies relating to American educational history and its intersections with American political history. The book is impressively researched throughout and provides a number of insightful suggestions at the intersections of American political history/theory and educational history/theory. For these reasons, Kett's book should prove valuable to a wide range of scholars of American political thought, including both historians and political scientists.- S. Adam Seagrave (Political Science Quarterly)