"This monograph has first-class credentials . . . it is an excellent
book for the specialist in search of a wealth of source material . . .
which is virtually inaccessible outside specialist libraries." - German
History "This . . . forcefully argued book . . . furthers our
understanding of the history of educational politics in the Weimar
Repulic in a number of important ways." - American Historical Review
"The strengths of this [fine] carefully researched and written book
are many . . . [It] should prompt international comparisons of
progressive education and contribute to thinking about the contested
role of public education in democratic, diverse societies." - History of
Education Quarterly ". . . an important and highly accessible
contribution to the history of education in Germany and to the study of
political culture, as well as grass-roots politics, in Weimar Germany.
It is the only monograph on the topic in English and a must for research
libraries." - History: Reviews of New Books Although the early history
of progressive education is often associated with John Dewey in America,
the author argues convincingly that the pedagogues in the elementary
schools in the big cities of Imperial Germany were in the avant garde of
this movement on the European Continent. Far more than a history of
ideas, this study provides the first comprehensive analysis of the
culture wars over the schools in Germany in the 1920s. Going up to the
Nazi seizure of power, the author's narrative sheds new light on the
courageous defense of the republican state by the progressive educators
in the 1930s and the relationship between the traditionalists'
opposition to school reform and the attraction of certain sections of
the teaching profession to the Nazi movement. Marjorie Lamberti is
Charles A. Dana Professor of History at Middlebury College. Her
publications include State, Society, and the Elementary School in
Imperial Germany.
