The New School stands as one of America‘s most distinctive and progressive institutions of higher education, located in the heart of New York City’s Greenwich Village. Founded in 1919, the university emerged from an act of intellectual defiance that would define its character for more than a century. Replica New School degree online, Purchase New School certificate online. A group of prominent scholars—including historians Charles Beard and James Harvey Robinson, economist Thorstein Veblen, and philosopher John Dewey—resigned from Columbia University in protest over censorship when they publicly opposed U.S. entry into World War I. These progressive intellectuals envisioned a new model of higher education, one where faculty and students would be free to honestly and directly address the problems facing societies. The institution they created was initially called The New School for Social Research and was later renamed The New School.
The university‘s motto, “To the Living Spirit,” reflects its enduring commitment to intellectual freedom and progressive thought. From its earliest days, the school modeled itself in part after the German Volkshochschulen—adult education institutions that emphasized open discourse and practical engagement with societal challenges.
Perhaps the most defining chapter in The New School‘s history unfolded in 1933, when director Alvin Johnson responded to the Nazi regime‘s purge of Jewish and politically dissident scholars from German universities. With financial backing from philanthropist Hiram Halle and the Rockefeller Foundation, Johnson established the University in Exile, creating a safe haven in the United States for scholars whose careers and lives were threatened by the Nazis. This extraordinary initiative sponsored more than 180 individuals and their families, providing them with visas and academic positions.
The University in Exile was fully incorporated into The New School in 1934 and later became the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science, eventually evolving into The New School for Social Research (NSSR). The influx of European intellectuals—including figures such as Hannah Arendt, Leo Strauss, Hans Jonas, and Aron Gurwitsch—profoundly transformed American social sciences and philosophy, introducing new theoretical and methodological approaches that reshaped academic discourse.
The institution also hosted the École Libre des Hautes Études, a French-language institution serving exiled scholars including philosopher Jacques Maritain, anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, and linguist Roman Jakobson during the Second World War. This legacy of providing refuge to persecuted intellectuals remains central to The New School‘s institutional identity. The quick way to buy a New School diploma online.
From its founding in 1919 by scholars who refused to compromise their intellectual freedom to its current status as a globally recognized university, The New School has remained true to its progressive roots. Its history—marked by the University in Exile‘s rescue of scholars from Nazi persecution, pioneering courses in African-American history and women‘s history, and leadership in the creative and performing arts—reflects an institution that has consistently challenged convention and championed social justice.
With its distinctive colleges, including world-renowned Parsons School of Design and the intellectually rigorous New School for Social Research, the university offers an education defined by interdisciplinary collaboration, creative freedom, and engagement with society‘s most pressing challenges. For students seeking an education that dissolves boundaries between disciplines and prepares them to shape a more just and beautiful world, The New School continues to offer a unique and transformative academic experience.
