  On Dewey’s death, obituarists eulogized him as the authoritative American philosopher of democracy. Both during his life and subsequently, he has been a more controversial figure than this reputation would suggest. In part, this reflects his profile and fecundity. Precisely because he ranged so prominently across such a wide intellectual terrain, Dewey has been a point of reference and target for commentators in all the fields he explored: his educational writings in particular became a default fons et origo of the alleged ills ascribed to schemes of progressive education by their critics. Further, across a long and active career as a public intellectual, Dewey adopted bold and controversial political positions on deeply divisive issues, including (for example) robustly supporting US entry into the First World War and later opposing intervention in the Second World War, which also attracted fierce opprobrium as well as support.