The war that wasn't : religious conflict and compromise in the common schools of New York state, 1865-1900 / Benjamin Justice.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Justice, Benjamin, 1971-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Religion in the public schools--New York (State)--History--19th century.

Religion in the public schools.

Church and education--New York (State)--History--19th century.

Church and education.

Church and state--New York (State)--History--19th century.

Church and state.

History.

New York (State).

Physical Description:

xiv, 285 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, [2005]

Summary:

Historians of religion and public schooling often focus on conflict and Bible Wars, pitting Catholics and Protestants against one another in palpitating narratives of the embattled development of American public schooling. The War That Wasn't tells a different story, arguing that in nineteenth-century New York State a civil system of democratic, local control led to adjustments and compromises far more than discord and bitter conflict. In the decades after the Civil War, New Yorkers from rural, one-room schools to big city districts hammered out a variety of ways to reconcile public education and religious diversity. This book recounts their stories in delightful and compelling detail. The common school system of New York State managed to keep the peace during a time of religious and ethnic pluralism, before sweeping educational reforms ended many of these compromises by the turn of the twentieth century.

Contents:

Explaining the history of religion in public schools

Democracy trumps theocracy : the civil origins of the common school system in New York

Religion in post-bellum state and local school governance

Politics, religion, and district schooling

Religious use of the district schoolhouse

Religious exercises in district schools

Local control, religion, and urban schooling

Religious exercises in urban schools

Public funds for religious schools

Explanations and implications.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 275-280) and index.

ISBN:

0791462110

OCLC:

55671340