In 1920, he began working at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, as a professor of English literature, where his tenure lasted until his retirement in 1960. While working at Earlham, Root, who had been a devout Quaker and pacifist, emerged as a conservative advocate.[1]
In 1952, Root wrote "Darkness at Noon in American Colleges", an article warning parents of the "polio of collectivism" at American colleges and universities.[1][2] He then wrote the book Collectivism on the Campus, alleging communism was widespread at colleges, and a few years later, Brainwashing in the High Schools: An Examination of Eleven American History Textbooks.[1][3][4] The latter book brought Root fame in conservative circles.[1]
Root became a member of the Textbook Evaluation Committee of Operation Textbook, sponsored by America's Future[5] under the direction of Lucille Cardin Crain.[a] The committee adopted DAR resolutions "as a yard-stick" to ascertain a textbook's acceptability. Any book failing to present the American Republic and U.S. Constitution in a favorable light received negative reviews.[6]
Other members of the Textbook Evaluation Committee, in 1959, were:
Root was one of the founders and original contributors to National Review, famously squaring off against Whittaker Chambers in reviews of novels by Ayn Rand in which Root defended her as a brilliantly gifted artist against Chambers' complaint that as a militant atheist she should be driven from the nascent conservative movement. In retirement, Root withdrew from the masthead of National Review and became an editor of the monthly American Opinion magazine of the John Birch Society, as well as continuing his editorial relationship with The American Friend, The Measure, and Quaker Life. His book America's Steadfast Dream, published in 1971, is an anthology of twenty-five essays that appeared in American Opinion over a period of a decade.
Root published 11 books of poetry, which were praised; his former teacher, Robert Frost, called Root "the second best poet in America".[7][1] He also wrote a biography of Frank Harris.[1]
Root's central philosophy was what he called "Essentialism".[citation needed] His intention was " ... to make coherent and affirmative a certain philosophy, and American philosophy, and to do so in terms of art." He stated his philosophy thus:
"More and more as my life has matured, I have realized that by fundamental nature I am a conservative. I have realized that I wish to preserve the roots of life whence grow the blossoms and the fruits of life, and that I have become a genuine radical - i.e., one who works with the roots of life, laboring to set them more firmly and to nourish them more richly. I applaud fruitful change that comes from an enhancement and intensification of the last things that maintain their continuity with first things. But, as I see it, such change must be growth from within, so that you and I and our nation become ever more clearly, more richly, more truly, what we always are, potentially in principle. Man is ever seeking novelty; God is forever and ever making things new. He does not make the seasons, nor the rose, nor the Labrador retriever, nor the lover nor the poet, novel - He makes them new. And because they are new in their fundamental being, they are vitally old; as tomorrow's sunrise will be the newest of dawns and the oldest of dawns, since it shone upon the Birthday of Creation."
For the individual, Root stated his philosophy as a person's "outermost expression of his innermost essence ... Man, being finite in existence, but infinite in essence, succeeds by reaching his highest point of failure."
He died at age 78 in 1973 in a Portland, Maine, hospital.[7]
^Lucille Cardin Crain (née Marie Lucille Gabrielle Cardin; 1901–1983) was an arch-conservative activist who, in 1949, founded the Educational Reviewer. Crain's primary interest was in – as she stated in 1951 – "rooting out radical influences in American education." In each issue, other arch-conservative academicians and writers offered their views of high school and college textbooks as evidence of collectivist content and the like. The publication, for the first three years, was chiefly financed by William F. Buckley, Jr. Crain's husband, Kenneth Cardwell Crain (1883–1969), was a brother of Gustavus Demetrious Crain, Jr. (1885–1973), founder of Crain Communications.
Cornog, William Hafner, PhD (1909–2002) (November 23, 1958). "A Look at the Text". New York Times Book Review, The (review of Root's book, Brainwashing in the High Schools). Section 7. Vol. 108, no. 36828 (Late City ed.). p. 20. Retrieved April 28, 2021 – via TimesMachine.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
