Head Masters: Phrenology, Secular Education and Nineteenth-Century Social Thought

Author:   Stephen Tomlinson
Publisher:   The University of Alabama Press
Edition:   2nd ed.
ISBN:  

9780817357634


Pages:   456
Publication Date:   30 June 2013
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   In stock   Availability explained
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Head Masters: Phrenology, Secular Education and Nineteenth-Century Social Thought


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Overview

Head Masters challenges the assumption that phrenology—the study of the conformation of the skull as it relates to mental faculties and character—played only a minor and somewhat anecdotal role in the development of education. Stephen Tomlinson asserts instead that phrenology was a scientifically respectable theory of human nature, perhaps the first solid physiological psychology. He shows that the first phrenologists were among the most prominent scientists and intellectuals of their day, and that the concept was eagerly embraced by leading members of the New England medical community. Following its progression from European theorists Franz-Joseph Gall, Johan Gasper Spurzheim, and George Combe to Americans Horace Mann and Samuel Gridley Howe, Tomlinson traces the origins of phrenological theory and examines how its basic principles of human classification, inheritance, and development provided a foundation for the progressive practices advocated by middle-class reformers such as Combe and Mann. He also elucidates the ways in which class, race, and gender stereotypes permeated 19th century thought and how popular views of nature, mind, and society supported a secular curriculum favouring the use of disciplinary practices based on physiology. This study ultimately offers a reconsideration of the ideas and theories that motivated education reformers such as Mann and Howe, and a reassessment of Combe, who, though hardly known by contemporary scholars, emerges as one of the most important and influential educators of the 19th century.

Full Product Details

Author:   Stephen Tomlinson
Publisher:   The University of Alabama Press
Imprint:   The University of Alabama Press
Edition:   2nd ed.
Dimensions:   Width: 15.50cm , Height: 3.60cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.720kg
ISBN:  

9780817357634


ISBN 10:   0817357637
Pages:   456
Publication Date:   30 June 2013
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In stock   Availability explained
We have confirmation that this item is in stock with the supplier. It will be ordered in for you and dispatched immediately.

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Reviews

This aptly titled book tackles an important subject: the influence of phrenology on educational and other social ideas in the nineteenth century. . . . Tomlinson's thesis is that phrenology had a far greater impact of the development on the thinking and policies of nineteenth-century reformers than historians have recognized. -- Journal of Southern History


This aptly titled book tackles an important subject: the influence of phrenology on educational and other social ideas in the nineteenth century. . . . Tomlinson's thesis is that phrenology had a far greater impact of the development on the thinking and policies of nineteenth-century reformers than historians have recognized. -- Journal of Southern History Stephen Tomlinson's fascinating and very well-written study focuses on the evolution of phrenological ideas among leading thinkers and reformers in Europe and the United States and explores the impact of these ideas on a number of specific reforms, including public schooling and the care of the disabled. The author's overarching argument is that while phrenology promised social progress--and helped propel a number of influential reforms--the doctrine also led in certain unhappy directions, such as racist theory and eugenics. -- Steven Mintz, author of Moralists and Modernizers: America's Pre-Civil War Reformers


Stephen Tomlinson's fascinating and very well-written study focuses on the evolution of phrenological ideas among leading thinkers and reformers in Europe and the United States and explores the impact of these ideas on a number of specific reforms, including public schooling and the care of the disabled. The author's overarching argument is that while phrenology promised social progress--and helped propel a number of influential reforms--the doctrine also led in certain unhappy directions, such as racist theory and eugenics. -- Steven Mintz, author of Moralists and Modernizers: America's Pre-Civil War Reformers This aptly titled book tackles an important subject: the influence of phrenology on educational and other social ideas in the nineteenth century. . . . Tomlinson's thesis is that phrenology had a far greater impact of the development on the thinking and policies of nineteenth-century reformers than historians have recognized. -- Journal of Southern History


Author Information

Stephen Tomlinson is Associate Professor in the Social Foundations of Education at The University of Alabama, USA.

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