1921. Robinson, an American historian and one of the founders of the New School for Social Research, of which he was the first director. Through his writings and lectures, in which he stressed the new history-the social, scientific, and intellectual progress of humanity rather than merely political happenings-he exerted an important influence on the study and teaching of history. The Mind in the Making was a popular book, which he wrote in the hope of persuading the public of the need for critical thinking about human behavior, to shore up their democratic optimism, in the wake of World War I, and to inoculate them against authoritarian ideas. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.