Book Prospectus Seattle Schools: A New Western History of Education, 1850-1990 Nancy Beadie, ed. Contact: Nancy Beadie Educational Leadership and Policy Studies College of Education, Box 353600 University of Washington Seattle, WA 98195
[email protected] (206) 221-3428 (o) (206) 324-1580 (h) Seattle Schools Book Proposal 1 Introductory Remarks The book described here is the first book in the New Western History to make education its central focus. It is also the first book to imagine the history of education in the United States from a western perspective. Practitioners of the new western history have investigated many dimensions of social and institutional life, from industries to churches, clubs to labor unions, regulatory agencies to ethnic groups and neighborhoods. Seldom, however, have education or schools appeared as more than incidental examples within these histories. Similarly, historians of education have long noted differences among regions of the United States in patterns of school development, especially between North and South. Nonetheless, most education history still takes the Northeastern United States as the standard, treating other regions as deviations from the norm. Few scholars have assumed the challenge of re-imagining the history of U.S. education from a regional perspective. More specifically, no one has yet made education the central focus of a study shaped by the principles, theories and themes of the New Western history. This book assumes that challenge. Content Overview Framing the history of education in Seattle as a study in new western history highlights several distinguishing features of the case as compared with that of other cities and regions in the United States.