Making Schools American: Nationalism and the Origin of Modern Educational Politics

Author:   Cody D. Ewert (Associate Editor, South Dakota Historical Society Press)
Publisher:   Johns Hopkins University Press
ISBN:  

9781421442792


Pages:   232
Publication Date:   14 June 2022
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   In stock   Availability explained
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Making Schools American: Nationalism and the Origin of Modern Educational Politics


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Overview

How school reformers in the Progressive Era—who envisioned the public school as the quintessential American institution—laid the groundwork for contemporary battles over the structure and curriculum of public schools. Around the turn of the twentieth century, a generation of school reformers began touting public education's unique capacity to unite a diverse and diffuse citizenry while curing a broad swath of social and political ills. They claimed that investing in education would equalize social and economic relations, strengthen democracy, and create high-caliber citizens equipped for the twentieth century, all while preserving the nation's sacred traditions. More than anything, they pitched the public school as a quintessentially American institution, a patriotic symbol in its own right—and the key to perfecting the American experiment. In Making Schools American, Cody Dodge Ewert makes clear that nationalism was the leading argument for schooling during the Progressive Era. Bringing together case studies of school reform crusades in New York, Utah, and Texas, he explores what was gained—and lost—as efforts to transform American schools evolved across space and time. Offering fresh insight into the development and politicization of public schooling in America, Ewert also reveals how reformers' utopian visions and lofty promises laid the groundwork for contemporary battles over the mission and methods of American public schools. Despite their divergent political visions and the unique conditions of the states, cities, and individual districts they served, school reformers wielded nationalistic rhetoric that made education a rallying point for Americans across lines of race, class, religion, and region. But ultimately, Making Schools American argues, upholding education as a potential solution to virtually every societal problem has hamstrung broader attempts at social reform while overburdening schools.

Full Product Details

Author:   Cody D. Ewert (Associate Editor, South Dakota Historical Society Press)
Publisher:   Johns Hopkins University Press
Imprint:   Johns Hopkins University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.20cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.454kg
ISBN:  

9781421442792


ISBN 10:   1421442795
Pages:   232
Publication Date:   14 June 2022
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
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.

Table of Contents

"Acknowledgments Introduction. The Main Hope of the Nation 1. Spreading ""the Spirit of Patriotism"": Recasting Public Education in Late-Nineteenth-Century New York State 2. Schools on Parade: Building a National School Reform Movement in the 1890s 3. Americanizing Zion: Public Education and the Mormon Question, 1887–1900 4. Building a ""Purer, Better, Braver Citizenship"": Civics in Progressive Era Utah 5. Heroic Past, Shameful Present: Progress, Tradition, and School Reform in Texas, 1907–1923 Epilogue Notes Index"

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Author Information

Historian Cody Dodge Ewert (PIERRE, SD) is managing editor at the South Dakota Historical Society Press. He earned his PhD in history from New York University.

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