Bennett Reimer's Philosophy of Music Education in the Mirror of Cold war Confrontation

Abstract: Bennett Reimer's philosophy of music education laid out in his influential A Philosophy of Music Education (1970) was born in the height of Cold War superpower confrontation but until recently its connection to Cold War politics and mentality has not been noticed and explored, in large part due to Reimer's decontextualized and depoliticized discourse. The present article, building on the findings of recent Cold War historiography and research on cultural Cold War, places Reimer's theory in the historical context and examines the entrenchment of its aesthetic foundation as well as Reimer's understanding of the relation of music education to society and politics and the developmental dynamics of the discipline in the Cold War political climate and ideology.