Krug, Mark M., 1915-

Mark M. Krug (1915-2004), professor of history and education, served on the faculty of the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Education during the 1960s and 1970s. Krug was interested in the politics of cultural pluralism both as an academic and in the wider community, and he was involved with secondary school curriculum initiatives at the state and national levels. He chaired the Zionist Organization of Chicago. The Mark M. Krug Papers include correspondence, teaching materials, and scholarly and public writings.

Mark M. Krug (1915-2004) was a professor of history and education at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Education. He was active in the wider Chicago community as an educator, author, social critic, and spokesman for Israel.

Krug was born in Vienna and lost his mother and sister to the Holocaust. He received an M.A. in education at Roosevelt University and a PhD in history from the University of Chicago in 1960. He taught high school history and began his academic career as a scholar of the American Civil War and Reconstruction era. His 1965 biography of Senator Lyman Trumbull was considered influential. His interest in race and politics became increasingly focused on the American education system, and the tension between teaching American history and “American values,” and respecting cultural pluralism.

As a faculty member of the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Education, Krug became involved in curriculum initiatives inside and outside the university, most notably as director of the Schwartz Citizenship Project. This project was funded by Mr. and Mrs. Charles and Lavinia P. Schwartz through a grant to the University of Chicago, but involved educators from outside the university. The project attempted to devise a one-year curriculum in government and civics instruction at the high school level, to be used across the country. In the Vietnam era it aimed to combat youth protest by focusing on aspects of the democratic process overlooked by traditional social studies and civics textbooks. These included the place of voluntary associations and pressure groups in American politics.

Krug’s scholarly and public writings during the 1970s revolved around the role of ethnic and racial minority lobbies in American politics and education. He became particularly interested in “white ethnic” groups, and his newspaper articles on the American Polish and Jewish communities attracted comment. The 1974 “Krug Report,” published as a series in the Chicago Tribune, addressed the controversial topic of the Chicago public school system, then plagued by violence and poor academic performance. Krug attacked racial segregation and a decentralized bureaucracy that gave local school councils and parents power to remove principals.

Krug himself was active in politics and involved with state and national legislative agendas on education and citizenship. He was also professionally invested in teacher training at the Graduate School of Education, where he taught classes in history and social studies education for the Master of Arts in Teaching and Master of Science in Teaching for Experienced Teachers degrees. Krug was prominent on the academic lecture circuit and participated yearly in conferences such as the National Council on Social Studies; he spent a term as a visiting professor at University of California at San Diego.

Between the late 1960s and 1971 Krug was director of the Zionist Organization of Chicago. He had connections with the Consul General of Israel and the Zionist Organization of America, and was frequently a guest speaker on Israeli politics and the cultural and political issues facing American Jews.