Pestalozzi and the Educationalization of the World

This book contextualizes the life of Pestalozzi along the lines of what is called ‘the educationalization of the world’ at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century, in which social problems were beginning to be understood as, and to be translated into, educational problems. Pestalozzi’s ‘discovery’ of the educational/teaching ‘method’ and its propaganda fit this educationalized culture perfectly and reinforced it. Accordingly, after the end of the Napoleonic rule and the Congress of Vienna in 1815, stakeholders in the newly founded nation-states began to erect public mass school systems in order to “make” future citizens and to realize the vision of the nation. Based on newer research and on new sources – the recent publication of some 2,500 letters sent to Pestalozzi – this work will reconstruct Pestalozzi’s passive and active role in the making of the educationalized world, first in Europe and then overseas.