THE IMPROVEMENT OF HUMANITY - Education and the French Revolution

Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1985. Book. Very Good. Hardcover. First Edition. 8vo. (viii) 347 pp. Quarter-bound in black cloth on brown cloth; decorated in gilt on the spine; black endpapers; headband. LIght rubbing on the corners of the dustjacket with some darkening on the spine; no interior markings. The Chapters are: Realities Before the Revolution: The ABCs; Colleges and Private Schools; Higher Learning. Nationalization: The Growth of Royal Authority; Signs of the Enlightenment; Writings of the 1760s on National Education; Actual Changes 1762 - 1789; The State the Church and the Public Power on the Eve of the Revolution. Politicization: Politics and Education; Plans and Projects; The Talleyrand Report and Its Critics; Discord and Disarray; Disendowment. Democratization: The Quest for Equality: The Condorcet Plan; The Disintegration of the Condorcet Plan; The Ambiguities of Education Commune; The Parisian Democracy of 1793; Educational Demands of the Sections of Paris; The Paris Plan of September 15, 1793; Some Actualities. Democratization: Building the Better World: The Bouquier Law; A National Language; National Festivals and a New Civic Environment; The Accelerated Revolutionary Courses; The Ecole Normale: Democracy Confused and Confounded. Modernization: The Paths of Progress: Ideologues and Intellectuals; The Half-Revival of Condorcet; The Law of 3 Brumaire of the Year IV; The Public and the Private Sectors; The Central Schools: Progressive Education; More Democrats: The Debate of the Year VII; And Ideologues: The Council on Public Instruction. Modernization: Collective Power: The Last Public Discussion 1800 - 1802; Old Colleges or New Central Schools; The Law of 11 Floreal of the Year X; The Napoleonic Lycees; The Imperial University; Monopoly and Competition; and The Higher Spheres; followed by: Concluding Reflections; an appendix; and an index..