The democratic idealist is prone to make light of the whole question of standards and leadership because of his unbounded faith in the plain people.

Babbitt's Literature and the American College (1908) caused a stir but it was assembled from writings already circulated. Blackmur Oscar Cargill Ernest Hemingway Harold Laski Sinclair Lewis H. Then he took a master's degree at Harvard including Sanskrit.

Irving Babbitt (August 2 1865 – July 15 1933) was an American academic and literary critic noted for his founding role in a movement that became known as the New Humanism a significant influence on literary discussion and conservative thought in the period between 1910 to 1930. He was an advocate of classical humanism but also offered an ecumenical defense of religion.