Citizens in Their Right Place: Nation Building and Mass Schooling in Nineteenth-Century France

Abstract

This chapter examines the relationship between the nation-building process in France and the erection of a national school system during the nineteenth century. While this system was aimed at mass education, closer examination of the landmark school acts from that period-specifically the 1833 Guizot law, the 1850 Falloux law, the 1867 Duruy law, the 1881 and 1882 Ferry laws, and the 1886 Goblet organic law, as well as their effects-reveals the inner contradictions of nation building in France and their consequences upon mass schooling. Throughout the century, statesmen built a structured institution of primary education for the children of the people in order to instill reverence for and obedience to a republican and secular France, and ensure that their place as citizens, men, and women was determined from the beginning.