The primary emotion that I felt after reading Ronald Evans' biography of progressive era luminary Harold Rugg was that of pleasant surprise, I was familiar with Evans' work, and I knew that This Happened in America won the 2008 Exemplary Research Award from the National Council for the Social Studies, so I expected the book to be thoroughly researched and well written, which it certainly was. However, I began the book somewhat skeptical about how relevant the story of a rather obscure educator, at least outside of the social studies, would be for a contemporary social studies audience. Yet the way in which Evans tells the story, particularly regarding the ideological attacks Rugg faced during the 1940s, provides a poignant commentary on both the importance of social studies education and the public contention against progressive social studies curricula that questions the status quo.
