New approaches to social history of Russian and German universities

Abstract

This collection of articles by Trude Maurer in the field of the social history of Russian and German universities is based on a wide range of sources and includes materials related to different topics. In the first section, the author investigates the formation of Russian higher-education teaching staff in the 19th century, the second section examines the history of female higher education both in Germany and in Russia. The next two sections present diverse cases: in the third one, there are the living conditions of Russian students in two German universities, and in the fourth section, there is self-determination of universities during the nation-building process. In the last section, the author examines gender, ethnic and other aspects of university everyday life during the WWI. The content of the whole book shows the baselessness of the traditional views of the university history in terms of progress and backwardness. Trude Maurer impugns particular historiographical stereotypes and proposes an innovative perspective in the comparative study of social history of the university. Refs 11.