As a historian, he did not settle for doing research in some small corner, though he explored plenty of corners as he was preparing to take on the whole of American education. In his three-volume History of American Education, he wrote about the evolution of public education in a lucid and elegant style that was compelling to professional historians and the lay public. He did not take short cuts in his research: his published work was characterized by copious notes, but they were relegated to the bottom of the page or to the back of the article or book. He did not allow them to clog the flow of his masterful narrative.