Harry Allen Overstreet

Harry Allen Overstreet was an American philosopher and teacher whose early career was closely tied to the University of California. The University of California appears within the 1904 volume Monographs on Education in California, prepared for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Overstreet had earned degrees at Berkeley and was teaching philosophy there when the institutional account appeared, giving the work a direct connection to his education and employment. He remained at Berkeley until 1911, then joined the College of the City of New York, where he later chaired philosophy and psychology. Overstreet subsequently wrote for general readers and collaborated with Bonaro Overstreet, but The University of California belongs to the formative stage of his career. It is best understood as a concise educational monograph by a recent graduate and faculty member, written before the later books that made his name more familiar in discussions of psychology, communication, and civic life.