Introduction : languages of education -- The educationalization of the modern world : progress, passion, and the Protestant promise of education -- Protestant misunderstandings : Max Weber and the Protestant ethic in America -- Rousseau's classical republicanism -- Linguistic turbulences : the American debates, 1776-1788 -- American culture, pragmatism, and the 'Kingdom of God on earth?' -- Language as homeland : the Genevan reception of pragmatism -- The becoming of an educational science : the Protestant souls and psychologies -- The German geisteswissenschaftliche Pädagogik and the ideology of Bildung -- Languages of education compared : Germany, Switzerland, and the United States -- Globalizing globalization : the neo-institutional concept of a world culture -- Concepts, cultures, and comparisons : PISA and the double German discontentment.