Leonard D. White and the Study of Public Administration

Abstract

LEONARD D. WHITE did not plant the seeds from which the field of public adminisstration grew; but for four decades he tended that garden with unexcelled devotion. Carefully cultivating, pruning, and transplanting, he sought to understand and to make clear to others the plan of the whole and to articulate the details of the several parts. The vast majority of students of public administration today were shaped at least in part by their exposure to White. Many have seen no need to leave the paths that he laid out or improved. Others have found White's landscape too restrictive. Yet all must, in one way or another, come to terms with it as a vital part of coming to terms with their field of study.