Charles Zueblin: lectures on American life

              1915

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Charles Zueblin
Lectures on American Life
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Charles Zueblin
Lectures on American Life
FOR more than twenty-five years Charles Zueblin has been interpreting America to Americans and setting forth an ideal of democratic development.

As a lecturer he electrifies his hearers, not only by his magnetic personality but also by the dynamic force of his ideas and the breadth of his information.

He is a scholar of the finest type—an earnest student of great problems who has kept in the midcurrent of life and has never allowed himself to be isolated from his fellows and their problems.

Mr. Zueblin's philosophy of life is uncompromisingly democratic.  He believes absolutely in the masses of the people, unorganized and inarticulate but potentially mighty.  He is never negative or destructive, always positive, constructive, creative.  Criticism is to him merely a clearing process for social reconstruction.

HE is the author of numerous books among which are the following: American Municipal Progress (1902), A Decade of Civic Development (1905), The Religion of a Democrat (1908), Democracy and the Overman (1910), American Municipal Progress, a revision, (1915).

When the University of Chicago was founded in 1892 Charles Zueblin, who had had a brilliant educational career as a student in American and European universities, was made instructor of sociology.  By 1902 he had been advanced to a professorship, a position which he held until his resignation in 1908.  During the sixteen years he was at the University as instructor, his main work was in the larger field of public life, a portion of each year being devoted to lecturing for the Extension Department of the University.




Charles Zueblin
What a Zueblin Lecture Does

MR. ZUEBLIN is as far removed in appearance from the usual deep student of large problems as may be imagined.  He looks more like a business man, who has survived twenty years of battling with executive problems in some hustling company, and still retained the clear eye and sturdy physique of a college athlete. … Those who have heard Mr. Zueblin lecture know that it is impossible for the mind to wander while he is on the platform.  He delivers his message with electric energy and his words come with precision and almost with the rapidity of gatling gun bullets.  His ideas possess the quality that is called 'suggestive' for they set little trains of thought which the listener has already half formulated into active movement.  The average person in the audience comes away from a Zueblin lecture feeling that his mental processes have just received a cold shower bath followed by a vigorous rub that sets the whole body tingling and glowing with the shock.—
Tribune, Galveston, Tex.


This student of society is a man of compelling personality whose strength of body and mind is at once apparent.  He is clear-cut and virile; he is incisive and constructive.  A big man in every sense, he talks of big things in a big way.  He is an optimist in the true interpretation of the word.  A practical idealist, he indulges in no platitudes, but hits straight from the shoulder, pointing the way to a higher and better plane of society.  He constructs rather than destroys. … Finely attuned, he gives to the world a message that is as old as the hills, but which only a few have been big enough to grasp.  A love for humanity, a keen sense of humor, a big love for justice have given him ideals to work for which have produced a potent and practical philosophy.—
Morning Record, Meriden, Conn.

Mr. Charles Zueblin delivered two lectures at the Ferris Institute some time ago.  These lectures are still enthusiastically mentioned by those who had the great pleasure of hearing them.  Mr. Zueblin is a delightful speaker, a fearless thinker, and a real civic missionary.

—Woodbridge N. Ferris, Ferris Institute (Former Governor of Michigan)

Mr. Zueblin's series of lectures at the Summer School of the South, ran through the week, two lectures each day, and proved most interesting and valuable.  The lectures attracted very large audiences, both of teachers in attendance at the school and of the citizens of Knoxville.  In these lectures, as elsewhere, Mr. Zueblin showed himself master of the platform.  This was due largely to his wide information and his skill in presentation.

—P. P. Claxton, Summer School of the South, Knoxville, Tenn.  (Commissioner of Education, Washington, D. C.)




Charles Zueblin
Some Zueblin Lecture Topics

Three Centuries of American Democracy
Pilgrims, Puritans and Patriots
What is an American?
America Among the Nations
Conserving American Motherhood



From Who's Who in America
Zueblin, Charles, publicist; b. Pendleton, Ind., May 4, 1866; s. John E. and Henrietta (Follett) Z.; U. of Pa., 1883–5; Ph. B., Northwestern U., 1887; D. B., Yale, 1889; U. of Leipzig, 1889–91; m. Rho, d. Herbert Franklin Fisk (q.v.), June 18, 1892.  Founded Northwestern Univ. Settlement 1891; 1st sec. Chicago Soc. for Univ. Extension, 1892; sec. class study div. Univ. Extension Dept. U. of Chicago, 1892; instr. sociology, 1892–5, asst. prof., 1895, asso. prof., 1896–1902, prof., 1902–8, U. of Chicago; editor Twentieth Century Magazine, Boston, 1911–12.  Lecturer.  Contbr. to Internat. Jour. of Ethics, Am. Jour. Sociology, Jour. Polit. Economy, Chautauquan, Independent, Dial, etc.  Lecturer Edinburgh Summer Sch., 1898.  Pres. Am. League for Civic Improvement, 1901–2; mem. Chicago Spl. Park Commn., 1901–5; mem. Nat. Municipal League.  Clubs: Civic (New York); City (Boston).  Author: American Municipal Progress, 1902, revised 1915; A Decade of Civic Development, 1905; The Religion of a Democrat, 1908; Democracy and the Overman, 1910.