Comparative and international education intersects with international relations, international development and modernization, and domestic political, cultural, and economic concerns. Therefore, the history of comparative and international education must be understood in a larger historical context. This article engages the current debate on the founding history of American comparative and international education. It addresses specifically the role of the , Columbia University in the formation of comparative education as a formal academic field in America. Of particular importance is the investigation of the immediate social and cultural concerns in post-World War I America that informed the motivation and purposes of expanding international education and comparative studies of different nations' educational ideas, practices, conditions, and systems. A closer look at the founding leaders' views on the relations of different cultures in terms of social progress further sheds light on how education was perceived as a tool for social change and the extension of American values across the globe.