Description
Book SynopsisDetails contemporary debates about the purpose of history teaching and the influence of late-Victorian and Edwardian educational culture, and goes on to examine how pedagogical developments shaped the content of early-years reading books and textbooks.
Trade Review'Peter Yeandle’s contribution on the politics of teaching history in England between 1870 and1930 does not disappoint. […] Throughout the book Yeandle has one eye on the contemporary debates on the teaching of history in schools in the twenty-first century. Indeed, the recent 800 year anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta has generated some rather far-fetched claims about its supposed significance in the creation of Britain’s modern democracy. Yeandle’s fascinating book exposes this claim to be largely a nineteenth-century invention and shows us the value of analyzing the history text and the pedagogic debates that created them.'
The Journal of the Social History Society
'Yeandle’s study significantly extends our knowledge of how imperialism was implicated in the teaching of history before 1930. Its findings will appeal to anyone interested in the development of history as a discipline, as well as to scholars of popular imperialism and elementary education alike.'
Journal of the History of Education Society
'This is a brief and powerful work, focused on two interconnected historical problems—the politics of historical pedagogy and the inculcation of imperial culture. It is remarkably successful, and Yeandle’s solid research will engage scholars of historiography and of pedagogical bibliography long after Britain’s Michael Gove moment has passed.'
Twentieth Century British History
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Table of ContentsIntroduction
Part I:
Contested Histories: the teaching of history in its “Golden Age”
Enlightened Patriotism? Or, what was history for?
The Renaissance of the Child: Educational theory and the teaching of history
Part II:
Imperial values and enlightened patriotism in the teaching of history, c. 1880–1930
Imperial values in the teaching of history I: national origins, seafaring and the Christian impulse
Imperial values in the teaching of history II: the English ‘race’
Enlightened Patriots: Heroes, heroines and ‘pioneers of progress’ in the teaching of history
History in War and Peace
Conclusion
Index
