Lawrence A. Cremin

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Lawrence A. Cremin (1925 - 1990) was an educational historian and administrator. He won the 1962 Bancroft Prize in American History for his book The Transformation of the School: Progressivism in American Education, 1876-1957. This book described the anti-intellectual emphasis on non-academic subjects and non-authoritarian teaching methods that occurred as a result of enormously increasing enrollment. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1981 for his American Education: The National Experience, 1783-1876.

A close associate of historian and public official Diane Ravitch, he retained the residency of Teachers College at Columbia University, in New York City, from 1974 to 1984. In 1985, he became the president of the Spencer Foundation.