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Innocents Abroad: American Teachers in the American Century. By Jonathan Zimmerman. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006. xii, 300 pp. $45.00, isbn 978-0-67402361-1.)
In Innocents Abroad, Jonathan Zimmerman provides both an important contribution to historical scholarship and a fascinating glimpse at the lives of a unique group of Americans. This book examines Americans in the twentieth century who went overseas to teach, whether under the auspices of missionary groups or as members of secular groups, most especially the Peace Corps. This is a gracefully written, thoroughly researched, and creatively organized study. It provides a thoughtful and imaginative perspective on how Americans who served as teachers overseas conceived of the American project overseas.
By looking deeply at a wide range of sources and the entire century, Zimmerman is the first to historicize the attitudes of American teachers abroad in the twentieth century. He effectively illustrates that...