Overview
The central challenge to imperial powers entering the modern era was the schooling of their peoples. How could they insure the literacy that modernity required without providing a foundation for nationalism among the colonized? In Russia's eastern empire in the late 19th century, Orthodox Christianity vied with Islam for people's souls; Russian language competed with Tatar and local vernaculars in market squares, peasant cottages and schoolrooms; Arabic and Cyrillic alphabets clashed in school textbooks; and western secularism undermined traditional religious authority among both Muslim and Orthodox faithful. Russian nationalism peaked in the early 20th century and public support for policies of the russification of non-Russian minorities increased. The inevitable clash with local languages shook the stability of the empire. ""Classroom and Empire"" tells the story of the politics of alphabets, languages and schooling in the eastern empire of Russia from 1860 to 1917. Wayne Dowler presents an intriguing cast of characters, including Nikolai Il'minskii, whose method of schooling non-Russian children lay at the heart of nationalist controversy; Ismail Bey Gaspirali, whose new method schools attempted to reconcile Islam with modern secular philosophy and science; Konstantin Pobedonostsev, procurator of the Holy Synod and eminence grise of the reigns of Alexander III and his sons Nicholas II; and Sophia Chicherina, feisty defender of the Il'minskii school. Dowler shows us that the problem of schooling non-Russians was unresolved by the fall of the Romanovs in 1917, smouldered through much of the Soviet period, and has re-emerged today as a major source of divisiveness in the Russian Federation.
Full Product Details
Author: Wayne Dowler ,
Wayne Dowler
Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
Imprint: McGill-Queen's University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 16.00cm
, Height: 71.20cm
, Length: 23.70cm
Weight: 0.603kg
ISBN: 9780773520998
ISBN 10: 0773520996
Pages: 448
Publication Date: 01 November 2000
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Out of stock
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Reviews
Dowler recovers for us the ideas and intentions if Il'minskii and the method that shaped the efforts to educate non-Russians in eastern borderlands. His general knowledge of Russian history allows him to describe effectively the general Imperial context shaping Il'minskii and expansion in the east. I learned much from Classroom and Empire. Austin Jersild, Department of History, Old Dominion University
Dowler recovers for us the ideas and intentions if Il'minskii and the 'method' that shaped the efforts to educate non-Russians in eastern borderlands. His general knowledge of Russian history allows him to describe effectively the general Imperial context shaping Il'minskii and expansion in the east. I learned much from Classroom and Empire. Austin Jersild, Department of History, Old Dominion University This work is a welcome addition to the history of education in the tsarist empire, and more specifically, of minority peoples in the empire. --SEER, 82/2, 2004
"""Dowler recovers for us the ideas and intentions if Il'minskii and the 'method' that shaped the efforts to educate non-Russians in eastern borderlands. His general knowledge of Russian history allows him to describe effectively the general Imperial context shaping Il'minskii and expansion in the east. I learned much from Classroom and Empire."" Austin Jersild, Department of History, Old Dominion University ""This work is a welcome addition to the history of education in the tsarist empire, and more specifically, of minority peoples in the empire.""--SEER, 82/2, 2004"
