In Creating an Informed Citizenry: Knowledge and Democracy in the Early American Republic, George Oberle asks: who validates the information that dictates citizens’ political opinions? Oberle, the History Librarian and an Associate Professor at George Mason University, examines how knowledge was created and circulated in early America, ultimately leading to the formation of the Smithsonian Institution. In an age of polarizing political standpoints, Oberle offers insight into the nature of education in the United States. Author Lindsay Shakenbach Regele says, “Creating an Informed Citizenry is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand what the founding generation and their successors thought and did about creating and sharing new knowledge and how we are living with their conceptions still.” 

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