Introduction

Summary

No one should expect the proceedings of a conference to bring together a complete survey and analysis of its announced subject. The often accidental and in some respects arbitrary conference arrangements of time and place, as well as the prior commitments of potential contributors, make such expectations illusory at the outset. Nonetheless, with much good will and persistent effort, it is possible to assemble a company of scholars - some seasoned and accomplished representatives of their fields, others at the early stages of their careers eager to bring their work to our attention - who will succeed in introducing us to recent scholarship on the announced subject. While not necessarily representative, such an effort can be sufficiently wideranging in its topics and varied in its approaches to permit a reasonably comprehensive and exemplary presentation.

The conference on German influences on American education was convened jointly by the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C., the Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies in Madison, Wisconsin, and the School of Education of the University of Wisconsin - Madison. The sponsors and the editors of this volume hope that they have been successful in bringing together a group of essays that provide an overview of recent scholarship and permit us to arrive at insights and conclusions that deserve more extended discussion. The volume will have served its purpose if it stimulates and advances future work on intercultural influences in education.