THE MENACE OF NATIONALISM IN EDUCATION.' By Jonathan French Scott,
Ph.D. (Allen and Unwin. 6s. 6d.=
net.)
Ii so far as the child is father of the man, the problem of. world peace may be ultimately solved in the schoolroom. But human nature is still perverse. The philosopher Mill, after a strictly mathematical infancy, revolted to poetry ; and a child bred upon international ideas might well develop alarming racial symptoms of patriotism. Dr. Scott has surveyed broadly the text-books now in use in schools in France, Ger- many and England. His conclusions may be summarized : Chauvinism and vituperation- of- Germany are sharpest in French histories of to-day ; but if there is less vituperation against France in German manuals there is a deeper na- tionalism and more glorification of the past : the British mind- is quicker to forget, as is shown in the treatment of the American Revolution, but school books reveal too complacent a desire to " take up the white man's burden " and dispense light to surrounding nations.
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