Bibliograph

Grace, talent, and merit, poor students, clerical careers, and professional ideology in eighteenth-century Germany, Anthony J. La Vopa

Type

Label

Grace, talent, and merit, poor students, clerical careers, and professional ideology in eighteenth-century Germany, Anthony J. La Vopa

Language

eng

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Grace, talent, and merit

Medium

electronic resource

Nature of contents

dictionaries

Oclc number

726828411

Responsibility statement

Anthony J. La Vopa

Series statement

Cambridge Social Sciences eBooks

Sub title

poor students, clerical careers, and professional ideology in eighteenth-century Germany

Summary

Poor students experienced a kind of upward mobility that was not uncommon in old-regime Europe. They were also objects of controversy. and as such they reveal the many dimensions of the issue of opening careers to talent. At stake were socially and politically sensitive questions about the relative importance of nature and nurture, of natural talent and 'birth', in realizing human potential; about the proper reconciliation of collective imperatives and individual freedom, of hierarchical stability and progress; about how national systems of education should be structured; about the kind and degree of upward mobility the society and the culture needed and could tolerate. This 1988 book shows how a cluster of familiar eighteenth-century ideas about grace, talent, and merit shaped a formative social experience for men whose importance is still celebrated today, as well as for members of the educated elite who were and have remained obscure.--, Provided by publisher

resource.variantTitle

Grace, Talent, & Merit

Creator