Teaching the Empire, livre ebook

Teaching the Empireexplores how Habsburg Austria utilized education to cultivate the patriotism of its people. Public schools have been a tool for patriotic development in Europe and the United States since their creation in the nineteenth century. On a basic level, this civic education taught children about their state while also articulating the common myths, heroes, and ideas that could bind society together. For the most part historians have focused on the development of civic education in nation-states like Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. There has been an assumption that the multinational Habsburg Monarchy did not, or could not, use their public schools for this purpose. Teaching the Empire proves this was not the case.

Through a robust examination of the civic education curriculum used in the schools of Habsburg from 1867–1914, Moore demonstrates that Austrian authorities attempted to forge a layered identity rooted in loyalties to an individual’s home province, national group, and the empire itself. Far from seeing nationalism as a zero-sum game, where increased nationalism decreased loyalty to the state, officials felt that patriotism could only be strong if regional and national identities were equally strong. The hope was that this layered identity would create a shared sense of belonging among populations that may not share the same cultural or linguistic background.

Austrian civic education was part of every aspect of school life—from classroom lessons to school events. This research revises long-standing historical notions regarding civic education within Habsburg and exposes the complexity of Austrian identity and civil society, deservedly integrating the Habsburg Monarchy into the broader discussion of the role of education in modern society.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, school officials in Habsburg Austria designed and implemented a robust system of civic education in elementary and secondary schools. This system was intended to make students become patriotic citizens and to help them develop an attachment to the multinational Habsburg state. The officials attempted to accomplish these goals in a way that constructively utilized existing national and regional identities, hoping these identities could strengthen, rather than diminish, the cohesion of Austria. Instead of attempting to forge an Austrian national identity, Austrian civic education promoted a layered identity that allowed for ethnic, national, and regional identities to exist within an imperial, supranational, Austrian framework. This layered identity was unique and represented an alternative to models of civic education that relied on language, culture, and nationality to serve as the primary unifying force within a state.

Civic education, a state’s effort to develop the loyalty of its citizens, prepare them to operate in political and civil society, and shape the way they regard their government, became a vital component of the public school curriculum in Europe and the United States in the second half of the nineteenth century. On a basic level, civic education in public school taught children how their state operated, how their government was organized, and their rights and obligations as citizens. Civic education also helped to articulate the common myths, heroes, and ideas that could bind a society together. It helped children think of themselves as members of the community of the state. In Austria- Hungary, the Habsburg dynasty served as the strongest connective thread binding its diverse lands and peoples, making Austrian identity an imperial identity. This dynastic union also meant that Austrian identity was supranational in nature. An individual was Austrian because he or she lived in the Habsburg Monarchy, not because he or she belonged to a specific national, ethnic, or linguistic group. As a result, Austrian identity was inclusive, rather than exclusive, and could be embraced by everyone within the Monarchy’s borders.

Acknowledgments
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1: The Development of Education and Civic Education in Austria
CHAPTER 2: Habsburg Rulers as the Personification of Good Governance
CHAPTER 3: Conceptualizing Austria and Austrians
CHAPTER 4: Commemorating the Monarchy
CHAPTER 5: Regulating Teachers
CONCLUSION
Notes
Bibliography
Index