Biography
My dissertation examines the founding and development of Junior Achievement (JA), a youth-centered educational organization that combined character building and experiential learning to introduce the next generation of workers to corporate hierarchy and cultivate in them the moral value of work. It traces the organization’s transformation from its 1916 origin through its significant international expansion by 1998. Adopting progressive pedagogies, JA offered simulated business experience in youth-run “companies.” I place Junior Achievement at the center of business leaders’ conscious mobilization of ideas and institutions throughout the 20th century to cultivate a novel capitalist morality that attempted to reconcile markets and democracy.
Prior to pursuing a Ph.D., I taught high school history in the Greater Boston Area. I’m indebted to my former students who encouraged me to pursue graduate studies.
Education
M.A., History, University of Wisconsin-Madison
M.A.T., Social Studies Education, Boston University (2017)
B.A., History, University of Pittsburgh (2016)
Field
- U.S./North American History
MA Title
- “Education, Language, and Cultural Exchange in Milwaukee’s Public Schools, 1846-1915”
Working Dissertation Title
- “The Business of Learning”: Junior Achievement and the Future of American Enterprise, 1916-1998
Selected Publications
- Maxwell Greenberg, “Standardizing Americanization: District Consolidation and the Making of the German Language Program in Milwaukee’s Public Schools, 1846-1918,” History of Education Quarterly 65, no. 3 (August 2025) (In Press).
- “Review of Lauren Lassabe Shepherd, Resistance from the Right: Conservatives and the Campus Wars,” reviewed for History of Education Quarterly 64, no. 3 (November 2024), 395-397.
- “Review of David Austin Walsh, Taking America Back: The Conservative Movement and the Far Right,” reviewed for George L. Mosse Program in History Blog. July 2024.
Selected Awards
- 2024-2025 Fellow, Department of History, University of Wisconsin–Madison
- 2023-2024 Early Excellence in Teaching Award, University of Wisconsin–Madison
- 2023 Exploratory Research Grant, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, DE
- 2022-23 Graduate School University Fellow, University of Wisconsin–Madison
- 2021-22 Morgridge Wisconsin Distinguished Graduate Fellow, University of Wisconsin– Madison
Professional Affiliations
- History of Education Society
- Business History Conference
Courses Taught as TA
- EDPOL/HIST 143: History of Race and Inequality in Urban America
- EDPOL/HIST 412: History of American Education
Courses Taught as Instructor
- EDPOL/HIST 412: History of American Education