This collection contains no fewer than fifteen essays, which the editors refer to as a collection of “surveys and perspectives on the history of local traditions in non-European countries before their own modernities” (2). This is an attempt to shift the focus of work in the field, where, according to the introduction, most past research has either focused on the contemporary state of affairs or effectively presented the local population as historyless by concentrating on what was done by Europeans in these lands. The geographical breadth of the volume is impressive: from Asia and Oceania, where we also find discussions of Japan, China, and Iraq; to the Americas, Africa, and the Ottoman Empire, with the final part dedicated to discussions on Eastern and Central Europe (Russia, Transylvania, and the Baltics) and Iceland.
The volume contains many important contributions that elucidate educational systems in various parts of the world and collect them in one place for better accessibility. It presents overviews of educational practices and often also developments over time. Despite the evident necessity of such a volume in contemporary historiography, the volume has several drawbacks. First and foremost, the introduction does not contain an in-depth discussion of the existing field and the state of art, having only two and a half pages dedicated to the introductory part itself. Instead, it gives a few general points such as the one mentioned above, and another on the complexity of the term European, without really reflecting in depth. The rest of the introduction is an overview of the included chapters.
The lack of a clear overarching framework for the volume that would tie all the ends together results in a somewhat detached collection rather than a well-conceived whole. Another point is that while the volume has been published in the series Early Modern Educational Thought, many of the chapters either make little reference to the early modern period as such, or only vaguely deal with it for the sake of comparison with earlier events or contemporary history. The editors explain this by stating that the authors treat European periodization from their own perspective, hence “modernities” in plural. Yet, without a clear chronological position for the contributions, it is rather difficult to compare the described educational practices within a given time frame.
Although intended for those interested in history of education, some of the chapters leave the reader without the necessary background on the historical context of the particular area in question. This can leave a nonspecialist in a given geographical area struggling to understand the nuances of the situation. The same is true for the level of legibility of certain contributions due to the language constraints. Several chapters deal almost exclusively with secondary literature rather than with primary sources, and the result is rather descriptive in its nature.
Criticism aside, the volume has many interesting contributions, such as the chapter on Ethiopian traditional education by Woldegiyorgis (one of the editors), which not only gives a very structured overview of a historical and religious background but also focuses on the onset of early modernity. Zeitlin's chapter “Learning and Literacy in Mesoamerica” is an important and well-conceived chapter, which focuses on Aztec, Maya, and Zapotec educational practices before the Spanish conquest, based on analysis of the colonial sources. Teixeira Cesar's contribution, “Indigenous Peoples and Colonial Early Modern Education of Brazil,” takes into account education for both women and men and traces the practices through the whole early modern period from Jesuit schools to the nineteenth century. Szegedi's well-informed chapter on educational traditions in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Transylvania, Fedyukin's chapter on early modern education in Russia, and Runce's chapter on educational traditions in the Baltics present together an important comparison of how education was approached in these parts of Eastern and Central Europe within approximately the same timeframe. It might also be interesting to examine whether Eastern and Western educational traditions overlapped at this time.
In conclusion, this book is important as a first stepping-stone into the discussion of early modern educational practices in a global context. It also sets the scene for future studies focusing on the period, which in its turn would allow for a comparative overview of educational thought and practice in different parts of the world. For the presentation of historical facts, this volume can be of interest to specialists in the various geographical areas discussed, and some of the individual chapters could be used for student reading in classes dedicated to local and global history.
