Description
Book SynopsisFor centuries American Indians and the Irish experienced assaults by powerful, expanding states, along with massive land loss and population collapse. In the early nineteenth century the U.S. government, acting through the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), began a systematic campaign to assimilate Indians. Initially dependent on Christian missionary societies, the BIA later built and ran its own day schools and boarding schools for Indian children. At the same time, the British government established a nationwide elementary school system in Ireland, overseen by the commissioners of national education, to assimilate the Irish. By the 1920s, as these campaigns of cultural transformation were ending, roughly similar proportions of Indian and Irish children attended state-regulated schools.
In the first full comparison of American and British government attempts to assimilate problem peoples through mass elementary education, Michael C. Coleman presents a complex an
Trade Review
"A substantial contribution to the extant scholarship in the field of comparative colonial study through the contexts of Ireland and Native North America."-Katie Kane, Great Plains Quarterly -- Katie Kane Great Plains Quarterly "This thoroughly researched and captivating comparison provides new insights into the educational projects of both the BIA and the CNEI, and complicates existing arguments about those longstanding educational initiatives. The American Indians, the Irish, and Government Schooling: A Comparative Study breaks new ground ... and lays foundations for further comparative works in this field."-New Hibernia Review -- New Hibernia Review New Hibernia Review "Michael Coleman ... has provided another fine study of Native American history with an emphasis on indigenous education."-Colin G. Calloway, Journal of American Ethnic History -- Colin G. Calloway Journal of American Ethnic History
