Bruce A. Kimball attacks the widely held assumption that the idea of American "professionalism" arose from the proliferation of urban professional positions during the late nineteenth century. This first paperback edition of The "True Professional Ideal" in America argues that the professional ideal can be traced back to the colonial period. This comprehensive intellectual history illuminates the profound relationships between the idea of a "professional" and broader changes in American social, cultural, and political history.

"[A] useful, densely researched, multilayered work in U.S. cultural and intellectual history." - American Historical Review

"...[A] brilliant book." - Times Literary Supplement