Pickaxe - Shovel - Notebook - Book: Village Institutes - Secularism and Romantic Nationalism

Pickaxe - Shovel - Notebook - Book: Village Institutes - Secularism and Romantic Nationalism Book Description “Romantic nationalism in the Village Institutes was directly proportional to the improvement of relations between 'mother nature and the peasant father' and at the same time to the village's internalization of the republican regime. The emphasis on nature and historicity in romantic nationalism was integrated with the nation-state construction of the republic in this proportion. The most important discourse of the Village Institutes, which aim to dominate nature and create advanced societies, is that societies become nationalized as they are educated, and lands become nationalized as they are cultivated.” Emre Ateş addresses the reality of one of the most controversial issues in the history of the republic, the Village Institutes, with a fresh perspective. Without getting caught up in "Institute nostalgia" and doing justice to this unique historical experience... The combination of Pickaxe-Shovel, Notebook-Book, which gives its name to the book, explains the fundamental importance that the Institutes attach to "training on the job" (and "collaboration") methods. An enlightenment and development project that envisages the villagers learning by working and becoming citizens through this experience... We see that this functionalist approach, by combining "love of duty" and "love of the homeland", bases the formation of a kind of "secular religion" that increases social motivation in the construction of the nation-state. This secular religion is shaped by a romantic discourse based on rejection of the historical past, struggle with intellectualism, village-city duality and pastoral cooperativeism. This discourse opens to a horizon that reflects "the rationalism of the Enlightenment, the practicality of the utilitarians, the materialism and scientism of the positivists, the collectivism and economic determinism of the socialists", as quoted by the author from Bertrand Russell. A meticulous and lively work, enriched by interviews with Village Institute members. (From the Promotional Bulletin)