John Dewey earned distinction in three different fields. In philosophy was the chief exponent of Pragmatism, the system established by William James, which has been called the philosophy of the commonman. In education he was the father of the Progressive School movement. And for many years he was in the vanguard of the fight for civil liberty and academic freedom. Democracy and Education probably his best known book has been regarded as an educational classic since its original publication in 1916. A standard text in many colleges and universities it is now studied along with Pestalozzi, Herbart, Froebel, Spencer Huxley and William James as one of the major contributions to educational philosophy.