Private Power for Public Good.

In the first decade of the twentieth century, some American businessmen with vast fortunes spent large sums of their wealth to advance their vision of the public good, and their philanthropy exerted a great impact on educational policy in the United States. The two best-known philanthropists of the era were John D. Rockefeller, who had made his fortune by creating the Standard Oil Company, and Andrew Carnegie, whose fortune was made as the head of U.S. Steel. Rather than simply giving charity to people in need, as philanthropists had traditionally done, Rockefeller and Carnegie believed their wealth should be used for a direct attack on the causes of social problems. To that end, both men created large foundations to supervise the distribution of philanthropic resources, foundations that were given broad and flexible mandates to promote the well-being of American society.

Educational...