New from Cambridge University Press: Education for All?: Literature, Culture and Education Development in Britain and Denmark by Cathie Jo Martin.
About the book, from the publisher:
Why did Denmark develop mass education for all in 1814, while Britain created a public-school system only in 1870 that primarily educated academic achievers? Cathie Jo Martin argues that fiction writers and their literary narratives inspired education campaigns throughout the nineteenth-century. Danish writers imagined mass schools as the foundation for a great society and economic growth. Their depictions fortified the mandate to educate all people and showed neglecting low-skill youth would waste societal resources and threaten the social fabric. Conversely, British authors pictured mass education as harming social stability, lower-class work, and national culture. Their stories of youths who overcame structural injustices with individual determination made it easier to blame students who failed to seize educational opportunities. Novel and compelling, Education for All? uses a multidisciplinary perspective to offer a unique gaze into historical policymaking.Cathie Jo Martin is Professor of Political Science at Boston University. Martin's book with Duane Swank, The Political Construction of Business Interests, received the APSA David Greenstone book award. She has received fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute, National Endowment for the Humanities and Russell Sage Foundation, among others.
--Marshal Zeringue
