Teaching Modernization

Amid the Cold War and global student protests, transnational forces significantly shaped the modernization of educational systems in Spain and Latin America during the 1960s and 1970s. Each study sheds new light on the transnational circulation of modernization discourses, practices, and ideology within the sphere of education.

Óscar J. Martín García is currently a tenure-track researcher at the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. His research has focused mainly on social movement and democratization studies and international Cold War history. He has authored two monographs, co-edited the collection Machineries of Persuasion: European Soft Power and Public Diplomacy during the Cold War, and published various articles in journals such as Cold War History, International History Review, Contemporary European History and Democratization, among others.

Lorenzo Delgado Gómez-Escalonilla is currently a Senior Scientific Researcher at the Spanish National Research Council in Madrid, Spain. He has extensively researched Spanish foreign policy in the twentieth century, American public diplomacy, and the educational, scientific and military assistance of the United States towards Spain. He has published his research in leading academic journals and is the author or editor of several books on these subjects, such as Westerly Wind. The Fulbright Program in Spain, US Public Diplomacy and Democratization in Spain: Selling Democracy?, and La apertura internacional de España. Entre el franquismo y la democracia (1953-1986).

Óscar J. Martín García is currently a tenure-track researcher at the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. His research has focused mainly on social movement and democratization studies and international Cold War history. He has authored two monographs, co-edited the collection Machineries of Persuasion: European Soft Power and Public Diplomacy during the Cold War, and published various articles in journals such as Cold War History, International History Review, Contemporary European History and Democratization, among others.

“Teaching Modernization fills a gap in Cold War scholarship by examining the impact of US modernization theory and developmentalist thinking on educational reform in Hispanic countries. The coherent contributions to this volume, based on thorough research and new archival material, give original accounts of the intricacies of US intellectual, political and financial support for educational reform.” • Tobias Rupprecht, University of Exeter

“This interesting study provides an in-depth analysis of educational reform in Spain and Latin America by interpreting educational reform within the wider context of modernization during the 1950s and 1960s. In particular, it traces the efforts of the United States to promote global policies that would lead to economic growth, social stability, and a rejection of communist alternatives.” • Giles Scott-Smith, Leiden University