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GLOBAL HISTORIES OF EDUCATION
The OECD’s
Historical Rise
in Education
The Formation of
a Global Governing Complex
Edited by
Christian Ydesen
Global Histories of Education
Series Editors
Diana Vidal
University of São Paulo
São Paulo, Brazil
Tim Allender
University of Sydney
Camperdown, NSW, Australia
Eckhardt Fuchs
Georg Eckert Institute for International
Textbook Research
Braunschweig, Germany
Noah W. Sobe
Loyola University Chicago
Chicago, IL, USA
We are very pleased to announce the ISCHE Global Histories of Education
book series. The International Standing Conference for the History of
Education has organized conferences in the field since 1978. Thanks to our
collaboration with Palgrave Macmillan we now offer an edited book series
for the publication of innovative scholarship in the history of education.
This series seeks to engage with historical scholarship that analyzes
education within a global, world, or transnational perspective. Specifically,
it seeks to examine the role of educational institutions, actors, technologies
as well as pedagogical ideas that for centuries have crossed regional and
national boundaries. Topics for publication may include the study of
educational networks and practices that connect national and colonial
domains, or those that range in time from the age of Empire to
decolonization. These networks could concern the international movement
of educational policies, curricula, pedagogies, or universities within and
across different socio-political settings. The ‘actors’ under examination
might include individuals and groups of people, but also educational
apparatuses such as textbooks, built-environments, and bureaucratic
paperwork situated within a global perspective. Books in the series may be
single authored or edited volumes. The strong transnational dimension of
the Global Histories of Education series means that many of the volumes
should be based on archival research undertaken in more than one country
and using documents written in multiple languages. All books in the series
will be published in English, although we welcome English-language
proposals for manuscripts which were initially written in other languages
and which will be translated into English at the cost of the author. All
submitted manuscripts will be blind peer-reviewed with editorial decisions
to be made by the ISCHE series editors who themselves are appointed by
the ISCHE Executive Committee to serve three to five year terms.
Full submissions should include: (1) a proposal aligned to the Palgrave
Book Proposal form (downloadable here); (2) the CV of the author(s) or
editor(s); and, (3) a cover letter that explains how the proposed book fits
into the overall aims and framing of the ISCHE Global Histories of
Education book series. Proposals and queries should be addressed to book-
series@ische.org. Preliminary inquiries are welcome and encouraged.
More information about this series at

http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/15390
Christian Ydesen
Editor
The OECD’s
Historical Rise
in Education
The Formation of a Global Governing Complex
Editor
Christian Ydesen
Department of Culture and Learning
Aalborg University
Aalborg, Denmark
Global Histories of Education

ISBN 978-3-030-33798-8 ISBN 978-3-030-33799-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33799-5
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2019
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
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Preface
This edited volume emerged from the research project called The Global
History of the OECD’s Role in Education, funded by the Rector’s
Research Talent Development Programme of Aalborg University,
Denmark. The project, running from 2017 to 2020, sets out to under-
stand the workings, mechanisms, range, and impact of the OECD’s edu-
cational recommendations and programs from a historical and comparative
perspective, across both member and non-member states. The project
thus draws on interviews with key agents, as well as archival sources at the
OECD Archives in Paris and the national archives of a number of selected
case countries.
One of the project’s ambitions has been to establish and facilitate an
international network of researchers working on the role of the OECD in
education. To this end, the project has brought together researchers from
five continents, and this book is largely the result of this network.
As part of the process, the symposium ‘The OECD’s Defining Role in
Education: Its Historical Rise, Global Impact and Comparative
Perspectives’ was held on 22–23 November 2018 in Aalborg, Denmark,
the 70th anniversary of the founding of the OECD’s predecessor, the
Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC) in 1948.
The event brought together this book’s contributors, who had the oppor-
tunity to present their work-in-progress papers and engage in academic
discussions and social activities with peers and friends. In this respect, I
thank research assistant Anna Bomholt and student helper Camilla Dam
Karlsen for taking charge of the tasks and challenges behind the scenes to
ensure the symposium’s success.
v
vi PREFACE
The project has also organized panels at the annual Comparative and
International Education Society Meeting in 2018 (Mexico City) and in
2019 (San Francisco), where authors of this volume presented their draft
chapters. In this regard, I thank associate professor Radhika Gorur of
Deakin University, Australia, and Barry McGaw, professor emeritus of
Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia, and former director for
education at the OECD in Paris, for serving as discussants.
As an editor, I am obviously indebted to the contributors, who not only
produced their chapters within the required limits of time, length, and
efficiency, but also supported this project in many important ways, read-
ing, reviewing, and providing valuable comments on earlier drafts of one
another’s works. Special thanks go to Jessica Holloway and Steven Lewis,
both from Deakin University, Australia, for their highly qualified com-
ments on the chapters in terms of language and content.
Finally, I thank my research group colleagues at the Centre for
Education Policy Research, Aalborg University, and my family for their
enduring support.
Aalborg, Denmark Christian Ydesen

August 2019
Contents
1 Introduction: What Can We Learn About Global

Education from Historical and Global Policy Studies of
the OECD? 1
Christian Ydesen
Part I Background of the OECD’s Rise to the Role as a

Global Authority in Education 15
2 Learning Productivity: The European Productivity

Agency—An Educational Enterprise 17
Regula Bürgi
3 The OECD, American Power and the Rise of the

“Economics of Education” in the 1960s 39
Maren Elfert
4 The Birth of the OECD’s Education Policy Area 63

Vera G. Centeno
vii
viii Contents
Part II The Impact of OECD Educational Initiatives and

Programs in National Contexts 83
5 Australian Education Joins the OECD: Federalism,

Regionalization, and the Role of Education in a Time of
Transition 85
Frederik Forrai Ørskov
6 International Cooperation from the Perspective of INEP

Agents: The OECD and Brazilian Public Education,
1996–2006109
Gabriela Toledo Silva
7 The Impact of PISA Studies on Education Policy in a

Democratic Perspective: The Implementation of National
Tests in Denmark133
Karen Egedal Andreasen
8 OECD and Educational Policy in China155

Yihuan Zou
9 OECD, PISA and the Educationalization of the World:

The Case of the Southern Cone Countries175
Felicitas Acosta
Part III OECD’s Education Initiatives and Programs in a

Global Perspective 197
10 The OECD’s Campaign for Distributed Leadership: The

Risks of Pushing for More Accountability and Teacher
Responsibility199
Jessica Holloway
11 Constructing School Autonomy with Accountability as a

Global Policy Model: A Focus on OECD’s Governance
Mechanisms219
Antoni Verger, Clara Fontdevila, and Lluís Parcerisa
Contents ix
12 How a European ‘Fear of Falling Behind’ Discourse

Co-produces Global Standards: Exploring the Inbound
and Outbound Performativity of the Transnational Turn
in European Education Policy245
John Benedicto Krejsler
13 Historicizing New Spaces and Relations of the OECD’s

Global Educational Governance: PISA for Schools and
PISA4U269
Steven Lewis
14 The Formation and Workings of a Global Education

Governing Complex291
Christian Ydesen
Index305
Notes on Contributors
Felicitas Acosta is a researcher and professor of history of education,

comparative education, and educational foundations at the National
University of General Sarmiento, Argentina. Her research interests focus
on the expansion of schooling from a comparative and historical perspec-
tive and international educational policies. She has specialized in the study
of secondary education in Europe and Latin America. Acosta’s research
interests also include international standardized assessments and innova-
tive finance in education.
Karen Egedal Andreasen, PhD is an associate professor in education and
pedagogical assessment at the Department of Culture and Learning,
Aalborg University. She is a member of the research group Centre for
Education Policy Research of Aalborg University and conducts research in
education and its assessment and history. Her main interests are issues of
socialization, social mobility and marginalization, and inclusion and
exclusion in different educational contexts in contemporary as well as
historical perspectives. Andreasen’s recent research has focused on the role
of assessment in comprehensive schooling and on educational innovation.
Regula Bürgi is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Vocational
Education and Training, University of Zurich. She studied educa-
tional sciences, German language and literature, and psychology at
the University of Zurich and the University of Heidelberg. In 2015,
she completed her PhD in educational sciences at the University of
Luxembourg. Her dissertation on the rise of international educational
expertise, ‘Die OECD und die Bildungsplanung der freien Welt. Denkstile
xi
xii NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
und Netzwerke einer internationalen Bildungsexpertise’, was published in

2017 (Verlag Barbara Budrich). Before joining the University of Zurich,
Bürgi held a postdoctoral position at the University of Luxembourg and
worked as a lecturer at the School of Education at the University of
Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland. She is working on a project
focusing on governance processes in vocational education and training in
Switzerland (funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation).
Vera G. Centeno is a senior researcher at the Tampere University, Finland.
She holds a degree in educational sciences (University of Lisbon, 2004), a
master’s in humanities and social sciences (University of Paris 10, 2006),
and a PhD in comparative education (Humboldt-University Berlin, 2014).
Her dissertation focused on the complexities of the early OECD’s educa-
tional agendas, and investigated agenda setting and knowledge production
within the organization (The OECD’s Educational Agendas—Framed from
Above, Fed from Below, Determined in Interaction, 2017). Centeno’s latest
research examined quality in education and performance measurement
policies (e.g. Comparative Education, 2018).
Maren Elfert, PhD is a lecturer of education and society at the School of
Education, Communication and Society at King’s College London, and a
2018 National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow.
Before pursuing doctoral studies, she worked for more than a decade as a
member of the professional staff at the UNESCO Institute for
Lifelong Learning, in Hamburg, Germany. Her research focuses on
the global governance of education and the influence of international
organizations on educational ideas and policies. Elfert is the author
of the book UNESCO’s Utopia of Lifelong Learning: An Intellectual
History (2018).
Clara Fontdevila is a PhD researcher at the Department of Sociology at
the Autonomous University of Barcelona, with a research project on the
negotiation of the post-2015 global education agenda and the develop-
ment of associated global learning metrics. Her areas of interest are educa-
tion markets, education and international development, and the global
governance of education. In the past, Fontdevila has participated in
different research projects, including a systematic review of the politi-
cal economy of education privatization reforms, a study on the role
of the World Bank in the shaping and promotion of teacher reforms,
and research on low-fee private schools in Peru.
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS xiii
Jessica Holloway is an Australian Research Council–funded DECRA

Fellow at the Research for Educational Impact Centre at Deakin University.
Her project The Role of Teacher Expertise, Authority and Professionalism
in Education investigates the relation between schools, professional exper-
tise, and democracy, and the role of teachers within these spaces. Her
recent publications include ‘Discourse analysis as theory, method, and
epistemology in studies of education policy: A critical synthesis of the lit-
erature’ (with Kate Anderson) in the Journal of Education Policy and
‘Teacher evaluation as an onto-epistemic framework’ in the British Journal
of Sociology of Education.
John Benedicto Krejsler is a professor at the Danish School of Education,
Aarhus University, Denmark. His research centers on new conditions for
(pre-)school and teacher education in a transnational perspective and brings
together three key themes: (1) the transnational turn in education policy,
(2) evidence and new conditions for producing ‘truths’ about ‘what works’,
and (3) social technologies (e.g. comparative surveys and rankings, appraisal
interviews). His research covers comparative education, transnational and
national education policy, and professional development in relation to the
fields of school policy, teacher education, and higher education reform.
Krejsler is president of the Nordic Educational Research Association and
council member of the European Educational Research Association
(2009–2018). He was a visiting professor at Kristianstad University,
Sweden (2009–2010), and a visiting scholar at the University of California,
Los Angeles (2015–2016).
Steven Lewis is an Australian Research Council–funded DECRA
Fellow at the Research for Educational Impact Centre at Deakin
University, Melbourne, Australia. His research project, titled Globalising
School Reform through Online Teacher Professional Learning
(2019–2022), investigates how schooling reform and teacher practice
are being (re)shaped and governed through new forms of international
evidence, data infrastructures, and online professional learning commu-
nities, including the OECD’s PISA4U Network. Lewis regularly pub-
lishes on issues relating to educational governance and policymaking,
international organizations, policy mobilities, and datafication in such
journals as the British Journal of Sociology of Education, the Cambridge
Journal of Education, Critical Studies in Education, and the Journal of
Education Policy.
xiv NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
Frederik Forrai Ørskov is a doctoral candidate at the Centre for Nordic

Studies at the University of Helsinki. He holds an MA in history from
Central European University and was formerly a research assistant with The
Global History of the OECD in Education project at Aalborg University.
His latest publications include ‘From Nordic Romanticism to Nordic
Modernity: Danish Tourist Brochures in Nazi Germany, 1929–39’ in the
Journal for Contemporary History; ‘Playing the game of IQ testing in
England and Denmark in the 1930s–1960s—A socio-material perspective’
in the Oxford Review of Education; and ‘Screening The Social Face of
Denmark to the Nazis: Social policy as subdued resistance during the
German occupation of Denmark’ in the Scandinavian Journal of History.
Lluís Parcerisa is a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at the
Autonomous University of Barcelona. His main research interests include
education policy, the sociology of education, comparative education, new
public management reforms, teacher professionalism, and the analysis of
the privatization of education and its impact on social and educational
inequalities. He has been a visiting fellow at the Alberto Hurtado University
in Santiago, Chile, and the University of California, Berkeley, California.
Parcerisa’s doctoral dissertation is part of the REFORMED project and
analyzes the globalization of new public management reforms and their
enactment in the Chilean school context.
Gabriela Toledo Silva has a PhD in public administration and government
(2016), and is an associate researcher at the Center for Public Administration
and Government, Fundação Getulio Vargas, São Paulo (since 2012), and a
public policy specialist with the government of São Paulo (since 2010). She
was formerly an associate member of the projects The Global History of the
OECD in Education and The Global History of UNESCO at Aalborg
University. Her PhD thesis is about UNESCO’s contribution to the
generation of cultural policy in the mid-1960s to promote public actions
related to culture. Silva has investigated the roles of local, national, and
international agents in the historical development of public actions related
to culture and education, with special interest in the role of documents in
the formation and coordination of public issues.
Antoni Verger is an associate professor at the Department of Sociology of
the Autonomous University of Barcelona. His research focuses on the
study of the relation between global governance institutions and education
policy, that is, how education policies are internationally disseminated and
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS xv
enacted in concrete institutional settings, and its effects on education

quality and equity. In recent years, Verger has specialized in the study of
public–private partnerships and accountability policies in education. He is
one of the lead editors of the World Yearbook of Education and the Journal
of Education Policy. He coordinates the ERC-funded project Reforming
Schools Globally: A Multi-Scalar Analysis of Autonomy and Accountability
Policies in the Education Sector (REFORMED).
Christian Ydesen MA in history and philosophy (2007), PhD (2011), is
a professor (WSR) at Aalborg University, Denmark (since 2019). His dis-
sertation is titled The Rise of High-Stakes Educational Testing in Denmark,
1920–1970. He is the PI of the project The Global History of the OECD
in Education, funded by the Aalborg University Talent Programme, and
the project Education Access under the Reign of Testing and Inclusion,
funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark. Ydesen has been a
visiting scholar at the University of Edinburgh (2008–2009, 2016), the
University of Birmingham (2013), and the University of Oxford (2019),
and has published several articles on topics such as educational testing,
international organizations, accountability, educational psychology, and
diversity in education from historical and international perspectives.
Yihuan Zou is an assistant professor at the School of Education, Central
China Normal University, China. He obtained his PhD from Aalborg
University, Denmark, in 2013. His dissertation is titled Quality of Higher
Education: Organizational and Educational Perspectives. Zou is the PI
of the project Organizational Change of Universities under the New
Accountability Requirement from the ‘Double First-Class’ Policy in
China, sponsored by the Chinese National Education Science Fund. He
has published several articles on topics such as the college entrance
examination and educational equity, educational accountability, and
quality assurance in higher education.
List of Figures
Fig. 2.1 European Productivity Agency (EPA)—Consultative Council

(15/ 06/1954) (copyright: ©OEEC) 18
Fig. 3.1 OECD Conference on Economic Growth and Investment in
Education, Brookings Institution, Washington, October 1961
(copyright: ©OECD) 40
Fig. 4.1 CERI Seminar at the Chateau de la Breviere, “Crisis in Higher
Education—The Students’ Role in the Academic Community”
(09–13/04/1969) (copyright: ©OECD) 64
Fig. 5.1 Tony Abbott, Australian Prime Minister, officially welcomes
Angel Gurría, OECD Secretary-General, to the G20 Leaders’
Summit in Brisbane, November 2014 (copyright: ©OECD) 86
Fig. 6.1 Ceremony for the signing of Ordinance no. 2000/2002 of the
Ministry of Education (ordinance establishing the National
Examination of Certification of Youth and Adult Skills—
Encceja). From right to left: Maria Helena Guimarães de
Castro (Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Education);
Planalto Palace (Brasília [DF]); Paulo Renato Souza (Minister
of Education), Brasília (DF), 07/11/2002 (copyright:
© Domingos Tadeu de Oliveira Pinto/Acervo Pres.
F.H. Cardoso)110
Fig. 7.1 FP9 Danish Written Presentation in public school, May 2019
(copyright: ©Dueholmskolen, Mors, Denmark) 134
Fig. 8.1 Chinese Minister of Education visits the OECD, 5 November
2013. Left to right: Yuan Guiren, Minister of Education,
China; Angel Gurría, OECD Secretary-General. (Copyright:
©OECD)156
xvii
xviii List of Figures
Fig. 9.1 OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría (left) and President of

Uruguay Tabaré Vázquez (right) at OECD Headquarters,
Paris, France, 30 October 2015. (Copyright: ©OECD) 176
Fig. 9.2 Average results in the three areas assessed by PISA. OECD
means Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay by PISA edition.
Argentina and Chile did not participate in 2003. Due to sample
errors Argentina’s 2015 results were excluded from the OECD
table results 177
Fig. 10.1 Canada’s leadership in education on the global stage at the
C21Canada150 Summit, PEI, July 20, 2017. (Licensed under
a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License) 200
Fig. 11.1 Middle-grade classroom. National assessments and
standardized tests are increasingly present in school classroom
dynamics such as the one represented in the picture. (Photo by
NeONBRAND on Unsplash) 220
Fig. 11.2 OECD governance mechanisms as used in the promotion of
SAWA reforms 235
Fig. 12.1 DAC/PARIS 21, Group photo, 15–18/10/2002. Appearing
on this picture: Mr. Antoine SIMONPIETRI, OECD/
OCDE—PARIS21 Manager; Mr. Brian HAMMOND, Head,
Reporting Systems Division, OECD Development
Co-operation Directorate; Ms. Lucie LALIBERTÉ, IMF/FMI,
Senior Advisor, Statistics Department; Mr. Graham EELE,
IMF/FMI, DECDG World Bank; Mr. Jean-Claude FAURE,
Chair, OECD Development Assistance Committee; Mr.
Philippe POMMIER, France, Chargé de Mission, Ministère des
Affaires Etrangères, Direction du Développement et de la
Coopération Technique; Dr. Oladejo AJAYI, Anglophone
Africa—Nigeria, Independent Consultant; Mr. Lamine DIOP,
Francophone Africa—Mali, Directeur General, Afristat; Mr.
Pali Jobo LEHOHLA, Chair: Paris21 Steering Committee;
Statistician General, Statistics South Africa. (Copyright:
©OECD PHOTO OCDE—Serge ATTAL) 246
Fig. 12.2 Map of PISA countries and economies: http://www.oecd.org/
pisa/aboutpisa/PISA%20Map%20legend%20disclaimer.png256
Fig. 12.3 IEA member countries (2018): https://www.iea.nl/our-
members. As an independent, international cooperative, the
IEA draws strength from its diverse network of members,
relying on their meaningful contributions and active
engagement worldwide. We currently have over 60 institutional
members, encompassing mostly research institutes, universities,
and ministries of education across Asia, Africa, Australasia, the
Americas, Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East 257
List of Figures xix
Fig. 12.4 BFUG membership is based on the membership of the

European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The EHEA
currently has three categories: Member, Consultative
Member, and Partner. The EHEA/BFUG members are 48
countries and the European Commission. Full members:
http://www.ehea.info/page-full_members258
Fig. 13.1 Members of the PISA4U winning teams have arrived at the
OECD headquarters in Paris to discuss their work in the
Programme and receive their certificates from Andreas
Schleicher, Director for Education and Skills at the OECD,
October 2017. (Copyright: ©OECD) 269
CHAPTER 1
Introduction: What Can We Learn About

Global Education from Historical and Global
Policy Studies of the OECD?
Christian Ydesen
The OECD and the Contours of a Global

Governing Complex in Education
One of the key speakers at the first conference on education held by the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
in Washington, D.C., in 1961 made a remarkable statement (OECD
1961: 35):
[T]he fight for education is too important to be left solely to the educators.
More than anything, this statement signals that education was becoming
increasingly politicized in the context of the Cold War, and it became a
battlefield between multiple stakeholders’ and professionals’ values and
knowledge forms, as well as political visions and priorities. Today, the
global order of education is characterized by various types of international
organizations, edu-businesses, and powerful nation-states continuously
C. Ydesen (*)
Department of Culture and Learning, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark
e-mail: cyd@hum.aau.dk
© The Author(s) 2019 1

C. Ydesen (ed.), The OECD’s Historical Rise
in Education, Global Histories of Education,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33799-5_1
2 C. YDESEN
shaping education systems across the globe, via networks, programs, and
initiatives in general, and comparisons, benchmarking, and standards in
particular.
Historically, the contemporary governing complex in education has
emerged from both the collaboration and struggles between various
agents and stakeholders. Bürgi’s (2017: 304) recent chapter on the his-
torical role of the OECD in education calls for more research on precisely
the structural and existential interdependencies between ‘national and
international bureaucracies and on the interplay between them’. Picking
up the baton, this book considers the OECD a highly relevant object for
an analysis of such an interplay. As an intergovernmental organization
made up of its member states and with no economic ‘big stick’ to enforce
adherence to its policy recommendations, the OECD exercises its power
and influence as the central cog of a global governing complex (Schmelzer
2012). The OECD has been key in the development of the way global
governance in education works, and today, the OECD is widely recog-
nized as a global authority in education because of its unique role in gov-
ernance by comparison and the production of educational norms and
paradigms, such as educational measurement indicators (Martens and
Jakobi 2010). In an era of overproduction of data and evidence, the
OECD has managed to establish itself as a key supplier and interpreter of
the type of evidence appreciated by politicians and decision-makers who
can ascribe their narratives to numbers; the watchwords here are simplifi-
cation, comparability, and decontextualization.
However, while most research recognizes the enormous importance of
the OECD as a global education policy shaper, little effort has been made
in gaining a better understanding of the developments and events that
made it possible for the OECD to assume this dominant role. More than
70 years have passed since the foundation of its predecessor, the
Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC). Back then,
the organization counted 18 members; today, the OECD has 36 members
and numerous partnerships around the globe; for instance, 80 countries
and economies participated in the 2018 round of the Programme for
International Student Assessment (PISA). It is high time to revisit the
historical events and developments that have put education on the eco-
nomic agenda and which have shaped and informed the very way educa-
tion is construed and enacted across the globe today.
1 INTRODUCTION: WHAT CAN WE LEARN ABOUT GLOBAL EDUCATION… 3
The Global Governing Complex and International

Organizations
As demonstrated in much of the contemporary research, a key feature of
the global order of education is that the selected variables, underlying
assumptions, concepts, categories, logarithms, and modes of counting
constituting the backbone of seemingly objective education data form a
powerful governing complex (Brøgger 2019; Gorur 2017; Grek 2009;
Hultqvist et al. 2018; Iriye 2002; Williamson and Piattoeva 2018). The
role of international organizations in this governing complex is often char-
acterized by soft governance, meaning that international organizations
shape the policies of nation-states via the production of policy ideas, policy
evaluations, and data generation (Leimgruber and Schmelzer 2017a).
Drawing on the work of Hawkins et al. (2006), Niemann and Martens
(2018; 269) argue that
IO soft governance implies that although international organizations are set

up by states and consist of state delegates, they are able to develop their own posi-
tions, ideas, or dynamics because of intra-organizational networks and inter-
actions that cannot be fully controlled by any principals.
Although soft governance is a common denominator, the international

organizations each have very different dispositions and instruments at
their disposal. Therefore, the interactions between international organiza-
tions and nation-states remain complex, ambiguous, and even elusive
(Christensen and Ydesen 2015). As pointed out by Moisio (2014), higher
education policymaking in Finland has resorted to a ‘policy spin’, where
national goals are fed back into the Finnish system via the European Union
after having been ‘planted’ by Finnish policymakers. Moisio’s example
points to the multilayered character of global education governance.
Nevertheless, it also suggests that international organizations constitute
vital hubs of education governance, because they disseminate, coordinate,
and evaluate policy programs, performance, and data production but, at
the same time, also obscure the various processes and actors behind the
scenes (e.g. via feed-in/feedback mechanisms, open methods of coordina-
tion and/or multilateral surveillance; see Brøgger 2019; Krejsler,
this volume).
In other words, the contemporary governing complex in education
leaves a big role for international organizations—in collaboration with
4 C. YDESEN
funders, partners, and stakeholders—to set the standards of what is con-

sidered good education worldwide. The implication is that the governing
complex revolving around international organizations has a significant
impact on the legitimation of knowledge, education curricula, and even
our understanding of the very purpose of education.
History, Education, and the OECD

Beginning as the OEEC in 1948, the OECD gradually took over the lead-
ing role from other international organizations in setting new agendas for
education globally, culminating thus far with the launch of PISA in 2000
(Morgan 2009). A recurrent and forceful characteristic of the OECD’s
paradigm in education has been a global vision of education as a source of
human capital, which is needed to address social challenges and improve
the economies of nation-states (Bray and Varghese 2011; Elfert, this vol-
ume; Elvin 1961; Spring 2015; Tröhler 2011). In other words, education
is viewed as an economic production factor in general, and as a tool for
maximizing the outcomes of a nation’s available human resources in
particular.
Although this line of thinking has a long history predating the forma-
tion of the OEEC/OECD—for instance, the liberal political philosopher
John Locke (1632–1704) sees education as an investment that would
increase a person’s economic value (Locke 1695/2000)—the organiza-
tion’s version of it amounts to a very utilitarian paradigm of education that
is deeply concerned with evaluation, accountability, and the facilitation of
cross-national governance in order to achieve ‘best practice’. Historically,
the pillars underpinning this economic paradigm in education have been
human capital theory and concerns about educational investment optimi-
zation, effectiveness, manpower planning, and the question of how educa-
tion can sustain economic success (Ydesen and Bomholt 2019). In other
words, and in trying to achieve a deeper understanding of the contempo-
rary governing complex in education, it is reasonable to speak of historical
sequences containing the seeds of a merger between education, gover-
nance, and economics—in terms of quantifiable methods (indicators, met-
rics, numbers, and data), accountability systems (the visibility and
comparability of education stakeholders’ performance), and the very pur-
poses of education (human resource management and economic growth).
Starting from these observations, it is the purpose of this book to
understand the workings, mechanisms, range, and impact of the OECD’s
work in education from a historical, international, and global perspective

across member and non-member states. The book thus aims to bridge the
research fields of policy studies and the history of education, seeing the
current scholarship on the history of international organizations in the
field of education as a logical addition to the present-day perspective of
policy studies. From this vantage point, it is this book’s ambition to con-
tribute to our understanding of the contemporary global governing com-
plex in education.
Historically Informed Policy Research on the OECD’s Role

in Global Education Governance
Introducing a book about the OECD’s role in global education gover-
nance from historical perspectives calls for reflections on its approach and
framework. In the social sciences, Charles Tilly (2006: 433) argues that
‘every significant political phenomenon lives in history and requires his-
torically grounded analysis for its explanation’, and Pierre Bourdieu
emphasizes that every social object must be understood as a historical one
and that it is imperative to historicize the research object in question to
achieve understanding (Steinmetz 2011). Much contemporary historical
research on the OECD subscribes to the same arguments, insofar as it
insists on considering the present and the past under a single analytical
lens. For instance, Leimgruber and Schmelzer (2017b: 6) argue that ‘ana-
lyzing the OECD as a Cold War institution… helps in understanding the
OECD more generally, also at present, in its geopolitical dimension and its
search for a new, post-Cold-War role’. In this sense, Leimgruber and
Schmelzer (2017a: 5) argue that ‘highlighting the OECD soft power
functions may shed light on its distinctive modes of governance, but this
perspective impedes a more thorough understanding of the OECD’s role
among postwar multilateral organizations’. Bürgi (2017: 286) agrees and
argues that we cannot interpret the processes surrounding PISA ‘merely
from a post-Cold War perspective’. Thus, it seems that historical perspec-
tives have something valuable to contribute to policy research.
Although these arguments appear sound from both a common-sense
and a scholarly perspective, they refrain from addressing the philosophical
problem pointed out by some philosophers of history, such as Leopold
von Ranke (1795–1896). Since the nineteenth century, much historical
research—most prominently influenced by the launch of historism—has
been based on the premise that the past is irreversibly gone and can never
6 C. YDESEN
again be invoked. In historiography, this premise is nurtured by a shift

from the recognition of exemplarity to the understanding of earlier epochs
on their own terms. For Ranke and, more recently, Ulrich Muhlack, learn-
ing from history is highly problematic (Assis 2014).
It is therefore necessary to consider how and to what extent the past
can be used to shed light on the present. According to philosopher David
Favrholdt (2004), it is possible to speak of structural similarities between
historical and contemporary events and developments. Such an analysis
comparing constructed time periods, however, quickly becomes problem-
atic because of idiosyncrasies and unique contextual factors. However,
according to Haydu (1998: 341), ‘we can remedy the deficiencies of con-
ventional comparative methods by rethinking the connections between
events in different time periods as reiterated problem solving’. In that
sense, Haydu argues that combining a focus on historical and contempo-
rary problem-solving processes, the narratives surrounding these pro-
cesses, and a meticulous empirical analysis of path dependencies can help
specify how contingencies shape historical change and impose both tem-
poral and explanatory order upon events ‘without foregoing causal expla-
nation’ (Haydu 1998: 349).
In other words, some themes that run through history do not sustain
causality but, nonetheless, lend explanatory power to historical develop-
ments. Following this line of thinking, our addition to Haydu’s argument
is that, if we consider time and experience to be something that extends
across the past, present, and future, then history becomes a reservoir of
communalities, for instance, organizations populated by human beings
with lived experiences of timeless themes such as love, power, competi-
tion, recognition, work life ambitions, and the transmission of legacies.
Returning to the historiography of the OECD, we can see these argu-
ments make sense when considering the three core claims of Leimgruber
and Schmelzer’s (2017a: 5–6) historical perspective, which all seem to
reflect significant elements of problem solving:
Firstly, the history of the OECD is better understood if one analyzes it as the
organization’s continuous endeavour to reinvent itself after it had lost its origi-
nal purpose at the end of the Marshall Plan.
Secondly, during much of its history, the OECD was not (or not primarily)
a think tank but served other important functions (e.g. an ‘economic NATO’).
And finally, the OECD is characterized by its survival strategies in competi-
tion with other international organizations, by its fundamental (geo)political
and identity-defining role, by formal and informal hierarchies, by restricted

spaces within the organization, and by internal rivalries, both between coun-
tries and between its different directorates.
Looking specifically at education, we find a historical research perspective

offers several things to our contemporary understanding of global educa-
tion governance.
First, such a focus increases awareness of the precursors of contempo-
rary programs and developments. From this perspective, a triadic train of
contingencies emerges where the OEEC European Productivity Agency
and its productivity imperative form the background of the OECD’s edu-
cational programs in the 1960s (Bürgi, this volume). The International
Education Indicators (INES) project, launched in 1988, serves as a pre-
cursor to PISA (Grek and Ydesen 2021), while PISA contemporarily
serves as a breeding ground for other related OECD policy products,
including PISA for Schools, PISA4U, AHELO, PIAAC, and PISA for
Development (Lewis, this volume).
Second, a historical perspective facilitates knowledge about trajectories
and path dependencies, which often define new spaces of opportunities. In
making this point about opportunities, we draw on the German historian
Reinhart Koselleck’s (1923–2006) conceptual pair of ‘horizon of experi-
ence’ and ‘space of expectation’, which together create new spaces of
opportunities beyond the limit of what has already been attained (Pickering
2004). One example, emphasizing path dependency, is that education
officially appeared on the OEEC/OECD agenda right after the Sputnik
shock in 1957, but the distinct approach to education adopted by the
organization had much earlier roots, in ideas about education as an eco-
nomic production factor, an object of optimization, and the source of a
nation’s human capital. Another example, highlighting the aspect of new
opportunities, is the reform of the education section between 1967 and
1970, with the institutionalization of the Centre for Educational Research
and Innovation (CERI), leading to the education section officially starting
to work more qualitatively on education policy issues instead of merely
conducting descriptive, quantitative, and comparative studies, as had been
the main focus of the Committee for Scientific and Technical Personnel
(Centeno 2017, this volume).
Third, a historical research perspective also enables a focus on continu-
ities and ruptures as an analytical lens. For instance, the OECD has been
consistent in linking education with economic concerns, but it was not
8 C. YDESEN
until the United States threatened to withdraw financial support for CERI
in the early 1980s that intense work on the development of standardized
indicators—the INES program—was launched (Addey 2018). In this
sense, the INES program exemplifies a rupture with one perspective; from
another perspective, however, it linked up with the 1960s effort to develop
quantitative indicators as emphasized by the then OEEC director
Alexander King (OEEC 1960; see also Chap. 14, this volume).
Through increased knowledge about historical contingencies, a histori-
cal approach can create awareness of the historical constructs of today’s
education policies that otherwise seem to operate in a naturalized way
according to an inherent logic. In that sense, historical perspectives can
also feed into a human emancipation project (Foucault 1977).
Work from such a perspective requires in-depth case-study analysis, as
well as access to and often even cross-checking within and across different
archives. At the same time, it often requires that the researcher draw on
other disciplines, such as comparative education, sociology, and political
science, in an eclectic manner. However, this also enables us to move
beyond methodological nationalism and into the fields of global and
transnational history. As argued by Matasci and Droux (2019: 234), ‘the
transnational paradigm, with its focus on the study of exchanges, intercon-
nections, and circulatory regimes, has undoubtedly given new life to the
history of international organizations’. Doing so, we can open up the
black box of the OECD and see how it has been working, the struggles
and crises it has gone through, and how it has been able to achieve such
power in global education today.
The combination of a historical perspective—drawing on primary archi-
val sources from the OECD Archives in Paris and national archives around
the globe, as well as interviews with key agents—with an education policy
perspective provides a comprehensive view of the work of the OECD in
education. By tackling the OECD from diverse points of view and in various
historical and geographical contexts, this book offers a broad understanding
of the continuities and ruptures in the historical journey taken by the OECD
as it became the most influential International Organisation (IO) in educa-
tion, and contributes to a better understanding of the interdependencies
between international organizations and (member and non-member) coun-
tries. One of the book’s main contributions is to show how the technologies
of organization become intertwined with different cultural worlds of mean-
ing, becoming visible not only on a policy level but also on a structural level
that contains the very governance architecture of the respective countries.
From a historiographical perspective, the book offers a contribution to both

global and world histories, as well as Eckhardt Fuchs’ notion of transna-
tional history as a historiographical field, which studies the relations, entan-
glements, and dependencies at the transnational level and contextualizes
events at the national level (Fuchs 2014; Fuchs and Vera 2019).
Organization and Structure

The first part of the book zooms in on the background of the OECD’s rise
to its role as a global authority in education. Chronologically, the focus is
on the OEEC era, between 1948 and 1961, and then up until the early
1970s, when education became firmly integrated into the OECD organi-
zation. In this sense, this part of the book establishes a solid and common
frame of reference for the analyses in the following two parts of the book.
Chapter 2, by Regula Bürgi, looks at the European Productivity Agency
(EPA), established in May 1953 as a semi-autonomous operational arm
under the OEEC, intended to ‘stimulate’ the productivity of Europe’s
economy as an educational enterprise. The chapter demonstrates the
branched-out cultural and political change effects of the EPA’s work and
initiatives, in terms of both Western societies and the OEEC/OECD
organization itself.
Chapter 3, by Maren Elfert, traces the historical origins of the OECD’s
role in actively shaping and diffusing the economics of education. From
this platform, the chapter argues that PISA is largely a continuation of the
economics of education approach.
In Chap. 4, Vera G. Centeno provides a historical account of the
OECD’s official involvement in education policy and offers an analysis of
the OECD’s rapid emergence as a policy actor in the field. Drawing on a
systematic analysis of unpublished internal documents, the chapter traces
what happened within the organization before and after the cre-
ation of CERI.
The second part of the book addresses the difficult issue of discerning
the impact of OECD educational initiatives and programs, and raises the
question of how the OECD’s educational recommendations and pro-
grams have impacted member and non-member states. Dealing with this
question, the authors each relate in different ways to the triangular role of
IGOs—as instrument, arena, and actor—noted in international relations
research (e.g. Archer 2001; Centeno 2021), as well as how we can under-
stand its impact (e.g. Christensen and Ydesen 2015). This perspective
10 C. YDESEN
involves an ambition to understand the power relations in the historical

processes that gave rise to the OECD’s dominating role in global
education.
Chapter 5 is written by Frederik Forrai Ørskov and looks at the interac-
tions between the OECD and Australian policymakers in the field of edu-
cation in the 1970s. The chapter highlights the importance of looking at
the movements between the different spatial levels of analysis when trac-
ing the ability of international organizations to obtain their ideas and
visions ‘out of house’. It concludes that Australia’s membership in the
OECD greatly strengthened the national government vis-à-vis the federal
states that had constitutionally controlled education.
Chapter 6, by Gabriela Toledo Silva, focuses on Brazil’s National
Institute of Educational Research as a vehicle for facilitating and mediat-
ing cooperation between the OECD and the Brazilian public education
sector between 1996 and 2006. The chapter concludes that education was
transformed in a variety of ways and that there is a marked difference
between what was planned and how the changes were later described.
Using Denmark as a case, Chap. 7, by Karen Egedal Andreasen, raises
the question of democracy in education in relation to the ways OECD
policies and programs affect national education policy and practice. The
chapter argues the presence of a political dimension in PISA and prob-
lematizes the democratic deficit in contemporary education policymaking.
In Chap. 8, Yihuan Zou reviews the collaborations between the OECD
and China, how OECD ideas have been used in the Chinese context, and
how the OECD’s impacts on Chinese education can be understood in the
global context. The chapter finds that OECD’s ideas have mainly been
used for new approaches to accountability and mechanisms for legitimat-
ing policies in the Chinese educational field.
In Chap. 9, Felicitas Acosta compares the Southern Cone countries of
Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile and how these three countries of the
Southern Hemisphere have established relations with the OECD at the
level of the educational system through the implementation of PISA tests.
The chapter finds both convergences and divergences in the rationales for
participating in standardized assessments. It argues the presence of a new
kind of educationalization advanced by systematic assessments of educa-
tion systems by an independent organization such as the OECD.
The third part of the book is dedicated to exploring the OECD’s edu-
cation initiatives and programs from a global perspective. Highlighting
the precursors and enactments of salient transnational policy trends
launched and sustained by the OECD, this part of the book provides
observations and analytical tools to enable a better understanding of the
workings of the contemporary governing complex in education.
Chapter 10, written by Jessica Holloway, analyzes the OECD’s cam-
paign for distributed leadership and points out the risks of pushing greater
accountability and teacher responsibility. The chapter problematizes the
global campaign for distributed leadership as situated within prevailing
accountability discourses that value data-driven orientations of schooling
over democratic ones.
Chapter 11, written by Antoni Verger, Clara Fontdevila, and Lluís
Parcerisa, analyzes the OECD’s governance mechanisms through the con-
struction of school autonomy with accountability as a global policy model.
Specifically, the chapter analyzes the governance mechanisms through
which these reforms are being promoted by the OECD, namely, data
gathering, education policy evaluation, and the generation of policy ideas
through different knowledge products and policy spaces.
In Chap. 12, John Benedicto Krejsler argues that we can learn much by
exploring how dominant Northern nations, in their fears of falling behind
among ‘global knowledge economies’, produce imaginaries that affect
how global standards are construed. The chapter adds to research on the
traveling of policy between dominant and less dominant regions in the
world, questioning how and by what parameters they become comparable.
Chapter 13 is written by Steven Lewis and takes a close look at two key
OECD programs: the school-focused PISA for schools and the teacher-
focused PISA4U. Both instruments enable international benchmarking
and policy learning for decidedly more local schooling spaces and actors.
The chapter shows how the OECD has enabled a whole series of new rela-
tions with a diverse array of local schooling spaces and actors.
Chapter 14, written by the editor, is a concluding chapter that reviews
the 13 preceding chapters and draws conclusions about how we can
understand the formation and workings of the global governing complex
in education.
References
Addey, C. (2018). The assessment culture of international organizations: ‘From
philosophical doubt to statistical certainty’ through the appearance and growth
of international large-scale assessments. In M. Lawn & C. Alarcon (Eds.),
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Singling this vessel out as the object of his attack, Talbot, at 2
o’clock in the morning, dropped down with the tide, and threw his
grappling irons on board as the Asia opened fire. In an instant the
flames of the fire-ship were leaping above the lower yards of the
huge vessel, and Talbot, who had lingered on board until the last
moment, suffered terribly from the injuries received. His skin was
blistered from head to foot, his dress almost entirely destroyed, and
his eyesight for the time destroyed. His companions succeeded in
carrying him clear in a fast-pulling boat, finding shelter in a poor
cabin, where medical aid was at last procured for the sufferer.
Meanwhile the Asia, by strenuous efforts, had cleared herself from
the blazing craft, and, badly injured, had dropped down the river.
For this service, Congress, on October 10, 1777, passed a
resolution of thanks, promoting him to the rank of Major, and
recommending him to Gen. Washington for “employment agreeable
to his rank,” and he shortly after found an opportunity to gain further
distinction and a severe wound in the hip, in an attack on the enemy.
Under Gen. Sullivan he gathered eighty-six flatboats for
transportation of the army on Long Island, which was instrumental in
preventing disaster when a retreat was ordered.
The English, while in possession of Newport, moored a stout
vessel off the mouth of the Seconset River, providing her with twelve
8-pounders and ten swivels. Strong boarding nettings were attached,
while a crew of forty-five men under Lieut. Dunlap, of the Royal
Navy, commanded the craft, which had been named the Pigot.
Upon this vessel Maj. Talbot had his eye for some time, but could
obtain no suitable means of getting a party afloat. He finally gained
possession of a sloop, equipped her with two 3-pounders, manned
by sixty men. On a dark and foggy night Talbot embarked with his
men, allowing the old sloop to drift under bare poles, until the loom of
the great boat was seen through the fog. Down swept the coasting
sloop; the sentinels hailed, but before one of the Pigot’s guns could
be used the jibboom of the opposing craft had torn its way through
the boarding nettings, affording an opportunity for the attacking party
to board, sword in hand. The vessel was quickly carried, the
commander fighting desperately, en dishabille, and when compelled
to surrender wept over his miserable disgrace. Not a man had been
lost in this affair, and the prize was carried safely into Stonington.
For this exploit Talbot received a handsome letter from Henry
Laurens, President of Congress, and was promoted to a Lieutenant-
Colonelcy in the army. The Assembly of his native State presented
him with a sword, while the British termed him, “One of the greatest
arch-rebels in nature.”
In 1779 he was commissioned a Captain in the navy, but with no
national vessel for him to command. He was instructed to arm a
naval force sufficient to protect the coast from Long Island to
Nantucket. Congress was too poor to assist him, and only by great
efforts was he able to fit out the prize Pigot and a sloop called the
Argo. Humble as this craft was, Talbot assumed command without a
moment’s hesitation and proved what a man of valor and
determination could achieve with meagre means. The sloop was an
old-fashioned craft from Albany, square, wide stern, bluff bow, and
steered with a tiller. Her battery consisted of ten and afterward
twelve guns, two of which were mounted in the cabin. With a crew of
sixty, few of whom were seamen or had seen service, the gallant
Captain sailed from Providence on a cruise in May, 1779.
Exercising and drilling his men, he soon had them in fair shape,
enabling him to capture one vessel of twelve guns and two letter-of-
marque brigs from the West Indies. The prizes, with their cargoes,
were greatly needed by the authorities, while the successes
attending the efforts of the men greatly increased their confidence.
There was a Tory privateer of fourteen guns called the King
George, commanded by a Capt. Hazard, manned by eighty men,
whose depredations along the coast had made the craft a terror to
the inhabitants. For a meeting with this craft Capt. Talbot ardently
longed, but was baffled for quite a while. But fortune one clear day
smiled upon the Continental craft, the lookout espying the King
George about 100 miles off shore from Long Island. The Argo ran
the enemy aboard, clearing her deck with one raking broadside,
driving her crew below hatches, and capturing the privateer without
the loss of a man.
Shortly after the sloop met a large armed West Indiaman, who
fought desperately for over four hours. Talbot had the skirts of his
coat shot away, losing a number of men by the well-directed fire of
the enemy, and only succeeded in making his antagonist strike when
his main-mast went by the board.
The career of the sloop was brought to an abrupt termination by
the owners’ demanding her return, but not before Capt. Talbot had
secured six good prizes and 300 prisoners.
Capt. Talbot was now informed by Congress that “the government
had every desire to give him a respectable command, but absolutely
lacked the means to do it.” Succeeding to the command of a private
armed ship, Talbot made but one prize, when he found himself one
morning in the midst of a large fleet of English men-of-war.
Resistance was impossible, and as a prisoner the Captain was
transferred to the notorious Jersey prison ship, from which he was in
time removed to the jail in New York, ruled by the cruel and infamous
Cunningham.
In November, 1780, in company with seventy other prisoners, they
were marched to the ship Yarmouth, driven into the hold, destitute of
clothing and bedding, making the passage to England amid such
suffering and misery that beggars description. Talbot seemed to bear
a charmed life, passing unscathed through the horrors and death
about him, and was finally placed in the Dartmoor prison, out of
which he made a daring attempt to escape, and was confined in a
dungeon forty days as punishment. On three occasions he incurred
the same penalty for similar attempts, meeting his disappointments
and hardships with characteristic fortitude and courage.
Talbot gained his liberty through exchange for a British officer in
France, finding himself destitute and half-naked in a foreign land. He
landed at Cherbourg in December, 1781, after having been a
prisoner for fifteen months. At Paris Capt. Talbot was assisted by
Franklin and sailed for home in a brig, but fifteen days only after
leaving port she was captured by the Jupiter, an English privateer.
But Talbot was treated with kindness and courtesy by the captain,
who transferred him to a brig they encountered on her way from
Lisbon to New York.
He now retired to a farm, where he remained with his family until
1794. He had served his country faithfully, both on land and water,
bearing on his person more or less of British lead, which he carried
to his grave. He had been specially mentioned by Congress on
several occasions, and occupied a high place in the estimation of
Washington and the principal officers of the Continental army. But
with the dawn of peace he was allowed to remain in his place of
retirement without further acknowledgment from the government he
had served so well.
In 1794, when Congress enacted a law to enlarge the naval force
in order to check the depredations of the Algerians, among the six
experienced officers selected to command the frigates was Capt.
Talbot.
After hostilities with France had commenced, one of the
squadrons in the West Indies was placed under his command, and
he flew a broad pennant on board Old Ironsides in 1799, on the St.
Domingo station. Isaac Hull, as First Lieutenant, was Captain of the
frigate, and other officers served under Talbot’s command who
afterward became famous on the rolls of fame.
It was while Old Ironsides had Talbot for a commander that she
captured her first prize. This vessel had been the British packet
Sandwich, and only waited to complete a cargo of coffee to make a
run for France. Capt. Talbot resolved to cut her out, and a force of
seamen and marines were placed on board an American sloop and
the command given to the gallant Hull. The Sandwich was lying with
her broadside bearing on the channel, with a battery to protect her.
But so well was the movements of the sloop conducted that the
Sandwich was carried without the loss of a man. At the same time
Capt. Cormick landed with the marines and spiked the guns of the
battery.
THE “MIANTONOMOH” (DOUBLE-TURRETED MONITOR).
GUN-BOATS ON WESTERN RIVER.
(Destruction of the Confederate Ram Arkansas.)
The Sandwich was stripped to a girtline, with all the gear stowed
below; but before sunset she had royal yards across, her guns
sealed, and the prize crew mustered at the guns. Soon after she was
under way, beat out of the harbor and joined the frigate. Hull gained
great credit for the skill with which he had carried out the object of
the expedition, and at the time the affair made quite a sensation
among the various cruisers on the West India station.
Talbot was jealous of his rank and the dignity attached to his
station in the service. His courage, ability, and devotion to his
country were all beyond question. A question arose relative to the
seniority of rank between himself and Commodore Truxton, in which
the Secretary of the Navy gave the preference to Truxton.
This led the old veteran to tender his resignation and enjoy the
fairly earned repose of honorable age. President John Adams wrote
to Talbot requesting him to remain in the service, but the old sailor
replied, “Neither my honor nor reputation would permit me to be
commanded by Capt. Truxton, because he was, in fact, a junior
officer.”
Commodore Talbot, in withdrawing from the service, took with him
his two sons, who were following in their father’s footsteps, and,
purchasing land for them in Kentucky, alternated between New York
and the home established by his sons.
He was thirteen times wounded and carried five bullets in his body.
In his intercourse with others, his hospitality and social duties, he
carried himself with rare dignity and grace, and was one of the finest
specimens of a self-made American officer the country produced. He
died in the city of New York on June 30, 1813, and was buried under
Trinity Church.
His name and deeds of valor are enrolled among the proudest of
patriot heroes of the country.
THE WHALEBOATMEN OF THE REVOLUTION AND THEIR HEROIC

ACHIEVEMENTS.
The Revolutionary War gave birth to a valorous and dashing class

of men who operated along Long Island Sound, the shores of Long
Island, and the Jersey coast, from New York Bay to Tom’s River, and
other inlets and harbors. There were many of them, and they were
an astonishing set of men. Some had small sloops mounting two
small cannon, but the most effective work was accomplished in
whaleboats. It is singular that naval history and works treating on
naval subjects have failed to record or give the proper place in
history to the brave and dashing deeds achieved by the whaleboat
navy of the Revolution. They made themselves feared and hated by
their foes, and the British vessels that these men captured seem
beyond belief, were not the records of their work very clear and
extensive. They took vessels with valuable cargoes, burning or
blowing up whatever prizes they could not easily bring to port.
George Raymond, the acting sailing-master of the Bon-Homme
Richard, commanded by the celebrated Paul Jones, resided at
Brooklyn, Long Island, and was instrumental in fitting out a number
of whaleboat expeditions. He had made two voyages to India
previous to entering the service under Jones, a very rare occurrence
for an American in those early days.
The whaleboat fleet belonging to Connecticut was specially well
organized, manned, and effective. From their numerous haunts and
hiding-places they would sally forth, closing with their antagonists so
suddenly and furiously as to overcome all opposition, frequently
carrying armed ships, making up in noise and audacity what they
lacked in arms and numbers. Long Island Sound became very
unsafe to British parties and Tories and they seldom ventured any
great distance upon its waters, except they had protection from
armed vessels. At one time, so bold and daring had the
whaleboatmen become, that a frigate, a sloop of war, a corvette, and
a ten-gun brig were ordered to patrol the sound and exterminate the
privateersmen, placing them beyond the pale of quarter for the time
being. But these measures, beyond involving additional expense to
the crown, availed nothing. The whaleboatmen carried their lives in
their hands, but each and all were picked men, and with a
knowledge that they fought with a halter around their necks, none
but men of tried valor and courage joined the ranks, while the
leaders excelled in fertile resources, daring conceptions in the mode
of attack, combining with all a perfect knowledge of the scene of
operations.
Two of the most prominent, dashing, and successful leaders in this
mosquito fleet were Capts. Mariner and Hyler. Their adventures and
exploits, both in and out of their trim, lithe whaleboats, read more like
romance than sober facts, and their gallant deeds are still treasured
up and handed down by many a family dwelling along the shores of
Long Island Sound.
It was midsummer when the following exploit was achieved, and in
the full light of the moon sailing through a cloudless sky:
Capt. Mariner had for a long time contemplated a raid upon
Flatbush, the resort or headquarters of a number of violent Tories,
particularly obnoxious to the American officers. Gen. Washington
was particularly anxious to obtain possession of the person of Cols.
Axtell and Mathews, who were both active and influential loyalists,
partisans of the most pronounced stripe. By some means Mariner
became acquainted with the wish of Washington, and, although no
communication passed between the distinguished commander-in-
chief and the humble seaman, the whaleboat leader resolved to
reconnoitre the locality.
Disguised in the uniform of an independent loyalist rifle company,
Mariner proceeded to the tavern of Dr. Van Buren, a resort for all the
prominent surrounding gentry. Entering the tap-room, which was
crowded, discussions relative to the war and prominent individuals
were running high and waxing exceedingly hot, as well as decidedly
personal, as the disguised seamen mixed with the company. With
ready wit and sarcastic tongue, the “rifleman” joined in the argument,
while a Maj. Sherbook, of the British army, berated Capt. Mariner as
no better than a murderer, an outlaw, and a thief. Mariner’s eyes
sparkled, his hands twitching nervously as he listened to the tirade of
abuse poured forth in relation to himself.
“Confound this prowling, sneaking midnight vagabond, with his
ragamuffin crew,” angrily continued the Major, as he snapped a
speck of froth that had dropped from his tankard upon his laced and
scarlet coat sleeve; “he has developed into an intolerable nuisance
in these parts, and should be checked at once. I would thrash him
and his followers, single handed, with my riding whip, if ever
opportunity offered. But these water-rats come and go in such a
cowardly fashion that soldiers can scarcely hope to more than catch
a glimpse of their flaunting rags.”
“Don’t be too sure, my dear Major, in your estimate of the water-
sneaks, as you are pleased to term them. You may have a nearer
glimpse of their rags and steel also than you could wish, with an
opportunity to make good your threat to chastise the leader and his
crew, sooner than you now dream of,” and before the surprised
assemblage had recovered from their consternation and the
“influence,” he had disappeared through the doorway into the
darkness of the night.
Repairing at once to New Brunswick, Mariner prepared his fast
light-pulling whaleboat for the trip. The crew were summoned, armed
to the teeth, and when all was in readiness the long, shapely boat
glided swiftly and silently to New Utrecht, where the party formed in
single file on the beach at Bath, a few minutes after ten o’clock at
night. Two men were detailed to watch the boat, while the remainder
of the party proceeded rapidly to Flatbush Church. In the shadows of
overhanging trees the men were divided into four squads, the
houses they were to attack pointed out to them, each party being
provided with a battering ram capable of breaking in the heaviest
door at a blow. Silently and steadily the parties proceeded to their
several scenes of action, Mariner having reserved the residence of
the British Major as his special mission.
The signal for united and concerted action was the ringing report
of a pistol. The battering ram was then to be used, prisoners secured
and conveyed to the whaleboat. The attack was simultaneous in
various portions of the town. Mariner, sword in hand, searched in
vain for the doughty Major, but finally, when he was discovered, the
shadows of a large chimney had been used as a refuge from the
dreaded onslaught of the whaleboatmen. He was allowed to make
up a bundle of necessaries and hurried to the boat. The parties were
there—having met with more or less success—but the principal
game, the officials Washington so much desired to secure, were not
among the number. Business had unexpectedly summoned them to
New York the day before or their capture would have been effected.
After the war Capt. Mariner resided many years at Harlem and on
Ward’s Island. He was classed as a strange and eccentric man, full
of wit and an inexhaustible fund of anecdotes, but was not especially
popular among his associates and neighbors.
One of the favorite cruising haunts of Capt. Hyler was between
Egg Harbor and Staten Island. He was a man of wonderful nerve,
with great power of endurance, fertile in resources, and prompt to act
in situations requiring instant action.
Mention has been made of the British fleet sent to patrol the
waters of the sound. The corvette, mounting twenty guns, anchored
one foggy evening almost abreast of Hyler’s headquarters, a short
distance from Egg Harbor. The tap of the drum and words of
command from the officer of the deck could be distinctly heard on
shore. Incredible as it may appear, Capt. Hyler determined to
attempt the capture of the formidable cruiser. He had ascertained
that the vessel was short-handed, having dropped from her station
above with the intention of making an early departure for Halifax.
The available force of the intrepid whaleboat commander consisted
of forty-six well-armed and resolute men, expert at the oar, trained to
silence and dexterity, so as not to be heard at close quarters, even
with three or four boats pulling in company. Well had they been
named “marine devils” by their red-coated foes.
The whaleboat’s men were divided into two parties, Hyler taking
one, his Lieutenant the other. Two swift boats were soon pulling up
stream, with oars muffled, keeping well in the shadows of the rugged
shore. The night was intensely dark, rendering so small an object as
a boat close to the surface of the water impossible to be detected by
the sharpest-eyed sentry and lookout. Once in the full influence of
the tide, a grapnel was thrown overboard, to which was attached a
long, stout line. All hands disappeared beneath the thwarts, and but
two heads were visible, the leader in the stern sheets and the bow
oarsman, who veered away the line. Like a shadow, the whaleboat in
charge of the Lieutenant hovered alongside the corvette, while the
officer, his head on a level with the muzzle of the guns, swung
himself into the forechannels to reconnoitre. The anchor watch had
gathered forward, the officer of the deck was leaning idly over the
cabin companionway, intent upon what was passing below, while the
marine in the after gangway nodded at his post. Dropping cautiously
on deck the daring whaleboatman glanced hastily about him. A book
covered with canvas, hanging from a nail beside a spy-glass in a
rack over the steps leading to the officers’ quarters, caught his
vigilant eye. Gliding swiftly aft he grasped the coveted prize,
regaining his boat without being perceived. He had secured the
signal-book of the Royal Navy.
Dropping under the stern, the open windows revealed the officers
drinking wine and engaging in a game of cards. Capt. Hyler listened
to the report of his assistant, put the signal-book in a place of safety,
and at once pulled for the corvette. The boats boarded on opposite
sides, the whaleboatmen gaining the deck before an alarm was
sounded, the officers, as well as the watch on deck, being secured
without creating a general alarm. The surprise was complete.
Prisoners were handcuffed and conveyed on shore, while the
commander wept and wrung his hands when the flames of his vessel
lit up the surrounding gloom, recognizing that his career as an officer
had been forever disgraced. It was not until the vessel had blown up
that the commander informed Capt. Hyler that the cabin transom had
held £50,000 in gold.
One of the most daring exploits of Capt. Hyler was his visit to New
York with his men disguised and equipped as a British press gang.
The object was to secure the notorious renegade and Tory,
Lippincott—Pete Lippincott—who had savagely butchered Capt.
Huddy, a brave Continental officer. The patriots had offered a
handsome reward for him, dead or alive, and Capt. Hyler resolved to
seek him in his lair.
With a select crew in one whaleboat he sallied forth from the kilns
after dark, reaching the foot of Whitehall Street as the church bells
chimed 10 o’clock. Secreting the boat and leaving a guard to watch
it, the party pursued their way through Canvasstown, as it was then
called. It was the worst locality in the city, the lowest sink hole of
iniquity possible for a human being to frequent. The house of
Lippincott was reached, surrounded and the inmates secured, but
the head of the family, fortunately for himself, had that night attended
a cock-fight, and saved his neck from the fate he richly deserved. On
the return trip down the bay a large East Indiaman was encountered,
which fell an easy prize to the whaleboatmen. The crew were set
adrift, the ship taken to a secure hiding-place, where the rich cargo
was removed and the ship burned.
Capt. Hyler and his men once paid a visit to the house of a noted
loyalist Colonel, residing at a place known as Flatlands. The Colonel
was taken, the house searched, and two bags, supposed to contain
guineas, passed into the whaleboat. When daylight dawned, while
pulling up the Raritan, the bags were examined, and found to contain
pennies, belonging to the church of Flatlands. The Colonel had the
satisfaction of indulging in a hearty laugh at the expense of his
captors.
Hyler operated on the land as well as upon the water, and with
equal success. In addition to capturing a number of richly laden
prizes, he took a Hessian Major at night from the house of Michael
Bergen, at Gowanus, when his soldiers were encamped upon the
lawn in front of the house. He surprised and took a Sergeant’s guard
at Canarsie from the headquarters of their Captain. The guard were
at supper, their muskets stacked together in the hall, with no one by
to guard them, and fell an easy prize to the whaleboatmen. The arms
were seized, as well as the silver belonging to the followers of the
King, and while the officers were compelled to accompany their
captors, the privates were directed to report to Col. Axtell, in New
Jersey, with the compliments of Capt. Hyler.
On another occasion he captured four trading sloops, one of which
was armed, at Sandy Hook. One was carried off, the balance
burned, the share of prize money per man amounting to £400.
The captain of a vessel taken by Hyler published the following
account of the affair in the Pocket in 1779:
“I was on deck with three or four men on a very pleasant evening,
with our sentinel fixed. Our vessel was at anchor near Sandy Hook,
and the Lion, man-of-war, about a quarter of a mile distant. It was
calm and clear, with a full moon, about three hours above the
horizon. Suddenly we heard several pistols discharged into the cabin
and perceived at our elbows a number of armed persons, fallen, as it
were, from the clouds, who ordered us to surrender in a moment or
we were dead men. Upon this we were turned into the hold and the
hatches barred over us. The firing, however, had alarmed the man-
of-war, who hailed us and desired to know what was the matter, and
Capt. Hyler was kind enough to answer for us, saying that all was
well, which satisfied the cruiser.”
But a brief outline covering the deeds of the whaleboatmen of the
Revolution has been given. But it will serve to convince the reader
that their valorous deeds in the cause of liberty have received but
scant notice and courtesy from the hands of most historians. It is
impossible to restrain one’s admiration of their skill and courage, and
although their usefulness ended with the Revolutionary War, their
names and gallantry have a high place in naval annals.
ADVENTUROUS CAREER AND PATHETIC END OF CAPTAIN JAMES DREW.
In the Episcopal churchyard connected with the quaint village of

Lewes, Del., stands a monument, stained and weather-beaten,
bearing an inscription all but worn away by the action of time and
force of the elements. It was erected in memory of James Drew, a
valorous though reckless young American seaman who fought
bravely during the Revolution. His career and services deserve a
more extended and prominent place in history than the few obscure
lines traced on the crumbling marble which marks the neglected
resting-place of the brave but unfortunate patriot.
James Drew was an early applicant for a naval position, but, owing
to a scarcity of ships, failed to obtain from Congress the commission
and active service he longed for. He bore the English no love, and
when serving as second mate, sailing out of Philadelphia, had been
taken out of the vessel while in a West India port to serve on an
English man-of-war. Drew was a tall, powerful stripling, whose
breadth of chest and shoulders and bright, intelligent face formed a
physique not to be passed lightly by. He was seized under the
pretense of being an English deserter and quickly transferred to the
deck of an English frigate. For two years he found no opportunity of
escaping from his persecutors, and in that time had acquired a
perfect mastery of naval drill and discipline which afterwards proved
of inestimable value to the young commander. The battle of Bunker
Hill had been fought when young Drew severed his connection with
the Royal Navy in the following manner:
He had won the favor and good opinion of all the officers of the
Medusa frigate, then lying at Halifax, save one, the Lieutenant who
had been the means of impressing the young American. He had not
forgotten or forgiven the bitter invectives indulged in by Drew when
struggling for liberty on the deck of the molasses drogher, and to the
end remained his uncompromising enemy. The officer in question
had advanced in rank until he filled the position of second in
command, while Drew held a warrant as gunner. On some trumped-
up wrong the First Lieutenant, in the absence of his superior,
summoned the object of his hatred to the quarterdeck, where, in
presence of the ship’s company, he disgraced and struck the
American. Drew incurred the penalty of death by knocking his
persecutor down, and before a hand could be outstretched to
prevent him he had leaped overboard and was swimming for the
shore. The marines fired promptly upon the escaping fugitive, while
four boats were piped away with orders to bring the deserter back,
dead or alive. The shadows of a dark and stormy night soon
enveloped the retreating form of Drew, who, diving beneath the
surface, doubled on his pursuers, swam toward the frigate, coming
up under the heavy counter, gaining a footing on the rudder. A
passing wood schooner afforded him the opportunity of making an
attempt for liberty and evading the fate which stared him in the face.
He concealed himself on board until clear of the harbor, boarded
another vessel that was bound down the coast, succeeding after
many perils and hardships in once more regaining his native land. At
Philadelphia his reputation as a seaman and navigator was well
known, while Robert Morris, the great financier of the Revolution and
friend of Washington, took the young man in charge. Through the
influence of his powerful protector he could have had a Lieutenant’s
commission in the Continental navy, but this was changed for a plan
which suited young Drew’s temperament much better.
Provided with letters from Morris to a number of celebrated
personages in France, Drew crossed the ocean authorized to
negotiate for a large loan of gold and war material, and succeeded
by dint of persuasion and the influence of Morris’ name in obtaining
command of a French armed ship called the De Brock. No time was
lost in preparing for sea, the only drawback to Drew’s satisfaction
being the fact that his crew consisted entirely of Frenchmen. With
the gold intended for the cause of liberty stowed in the run, with
ammunition and small arms placed below hatches, Drew sailed for
America, carrying in the cabin a number of French officers seeking
service under Washington, and who had authority over the treasure,
relative to its handling and disposition. The nature of the vessel,
destination, and character of cargo had been kept secret as
possible, enabling him to gain the sea without detention, and the
course was shaped for Synopuxette Bay, near where now stands
Ocean City, Md. The point was reached in safety and the contents of
the De Brock’s hold were soon landed. Wagons, under the escort of
soldiers, accompanied by the French passengers, conveyed both
treasure and war material to Wilmington. The arms and ammunition
were at once forwarded to army headquarters, while the gold, for
some mysterious reason, was deposited in the cellar of a large
mansion occupied by French officers serving with the Americans.
There it remained all winter, so states the records, though why
Robert Morris did not assume possession of the specie, which was
so much needed, is not so plain.
In the spring the officers were compelled to shift their quarters,
when it was discovered that the gold which had been so jealously
guarded had been by some mysterious process abstracted from the
original packages. The flaming torches held on high by the
Frenchmen revealed naught but walls and arches of solid masonry,
with windows barred and massive doors bolted and locked. No
indications of violence could be found. No developments concerning
the strange affair were ever unearthed, and the mystery involved
with the disappearance of the gold remains a dark and forgotten
episode of the Revolution.
The De Brock, meanwhile, had not been idle. Once rid of her
cargo, Capt. Drew found a way of creating vacancies among the
crew, until, with a freshening breeze, he passed the capes, his ship
manned wholly by hardy and experienced fishermen, well drilled and
anxious to meet the enemy. Early on the morning of the third day a
sail was sighted in the southern offing, close hauled and standing for
the De Brock. In a short time the character of the stranger was
revealed, as she displayed the ensign and pennant of Old England,
and on the part of the De Brock, a banner bearing the device of a
rattlesnake, with thirteen rattles, coiled at the foot of a tree, in the act
of striking. Both vessels had cleared for action, and no time was lost
in coming to close quarters. Running before the wind, yardarm and
yardarm within half pistol-shot distance, broadsides were exchanged
in rapid succession. The gunnery on both sides was none of the
best, which fact rendered Drew impatient, who, watching a favorable
opportunity, when both vessels were enshrouded in smoke,
motioned to his sailing-master, and with a crash the two vessels
swung together.
“Follow me, men!” shouted the impetuous Drew, leaping on the
quarterdeck of his adversary, cutlass in hand, to find himself
immediately confronted by the English commander. A mutual shout
of astonishment and fierce exultation from each revealed the fact
that the leaders were no strangers to each other. The Lieutenant of a
press gang of a few years back had won the epaulets of a
commander, while his would-be victim confronted him, the leader of
a powerful and well-disciplined force. As their swords crossed no
heed was bestowed upon the conflict raging about them. All of their
energies were concentrated upon one object, to have each other’s
life-blood.
The British commander, forced backward a step as Drew pressed
him fiercely, stumbled over a ringbolt and fell at his opponent’s feet.
“Resume your sword,” said Drew, contemptuously; “I prefer to kill
you with your weapon in your hand.”
“Look to yourself, rebel and deserter. Your life is forfeited, and no
mercy shall you receive from my hand.”
“Wait until I ask it,” was the reply, and the duel was resumed. The
Englishman’s sword snapped at the hilt; but, leaping nimbly aside,
he drew a pistol, firing point-blank at his foe. Drew felt his cocked hat
lifted from his head, his scalp feeling as if seared by a red-hot iron.
At the same instant his sword passed through the commander’s
body, and the feud between them was settled forever. The ship was
carried, and was manned by a prize crew, but was lost in a terrific
storm which shortly after swept the Southern coast.
The cruise of the De Brock extended as far as the West Indies,
many a sick Jamaica trader falling into the hand of the patriots. After
a long series of successes Drew returned to Lewes, recruited and
sailed again.
To recount all the incidents attending the career of the De Brock
and her commander would no doubt prove of absorbing interest, but
the records have been lost, and little remains to be related
concerning him save the manner in which the valorous seaman lost
his life.
He had become enamored with one of Lewes’ fair maidens, and
she, looking into the depths of her lover’s eyes, had secured from
him a solemn promise to give up the life he was leading upon the
completion of his next voyage. Shortly after the De Brock sailed
upon what was indeed her final cruise.
In the course of time two large English ships were captured,
loaded with valuable cargoes, and carrying an immense amount of
gold specie. A gale of wind had separated them from the convoy,
and, when overtaken by the De Brock, were tacking off shore to
discover, if possible, some signs of their scattered fleet. The treasure
had been transferred to the afterhold of the American cruiser, while
rich bundles and packages of merchandise were also stowed in a
place of safety. The value of the prize was estimated at not far from
£1,000,000, sufficient to make all connected with the De Brock more
than comfortable for life.
Satisfied with the unprecedented success that had befallen him,
Drew shaped his course for Lewes, driving the De Brock over the
turbulent surges of the Atlantic as she had never been forced before.
As the capes of Delaware were sighted, the elated commander
allowed the sailing-master to assume charge, while he, naturally
exultant over the wonderful success of his efforts, and in
consideration that he was about to take final leave of his officers and
crew, deemed the occasion one demanding from him an expression
of his appreciation of their valor and faithfulness. He forthwith
ordered his steward and servants to prepare the table in the cabin,
and a luxurious entertainment was prepared. The shores of his
native land were close aboard, the rugged outlines of his birthplace
were before him. The cheering tides of prosperity swept him onward
to a safe haven, and almost in imagination he felt the soft lips, warm
caresses, and waving locks of his beloved awaiting his arrival on the
pebbly beach.
The decanters had been circulating rapidly, when, amid the revels,
the piercing strains of the boatswain’s whistle and his mates were
heard summoning all hands to shorten sail. The flapping of canvas
and thrashing of blocks, with loud words of command, were heard
above the boisterous mirth and incessant clinking of glasses, which,
in a measure, had kept from the ears of revelers the whistling of the
rising gale through the taut rigging. The sea had suddenly sprang up,
causing the De Brock to pitch and roll in a very erratic and
uncomfortable manner.
Capt. Drew, flushed with wine, his brain clouded by the fumes of
the choicest vintage of France, appeared on deck, and, in an
unsteady voice, chided the cool, experienced, steady-going old
sailing-master for reducing sail and placing single reefs in the
topsails. He was in no mood to have the speed of the good ship
checked, with the spires and cottages of Lewes in sight from the
quarterdeck. Besides, were not the eyes of his sweetheart upon him,
as well as those of his neighbors and friends? He would show them
what their townsman, the favorite of fortune, could do, and what the
De Brock was capable of performing. Trumpet in hand, he thundered
forth order after order, resulting in all sail being made again, until the
topgallant sails were bulging and straining at sheets and braces as
the wind swept fiercely o’er the darkening sea. Hauling by the wind,
in order to head up for the harbor, the full force of the sharp,
whistling tempest was felt upon the straining, tugging canvas of the
wildly careening ship, and from many a bronzed and furrowed cheek
came glances of astonishment and apprehension, as seamen, who
had gathered experience in every clime, looked anxiously aloft, to
windward, and on the quarterdeck, where stood Drew in full
Continental uniform. But such was the discipline on the De Brock
that not a murmur reached the ears of the master spirit. He had
charge of the ship now, which no one on board would have the
hardihood to interfere with, knowing full well the impetuous and
intolerant spirit of the commander when his mettle was up. No one
who valued his life would have hazarded the shadow of a
suggestion.
Unyielding and stubborn, Drew stood to windward, while a heavier
squall than usual whitened the crests of the swelling surges. A crash,
a shriek, a flashing of snowy canvas against the sullen, gloomy
background, and as the gallant vessel plunged into a seething sea,
rolling heavily to leeward, the hungry waves leaped above the
submerged rail, a black torrent of roaring water choked the open
hatchways, and the De Brock, like a flash of light, a cloud of feathery
vapor, disappeared from the horrified gaze of the interested
spectators, who with glasses had been watching the movements and
wondering at the extraordinary press of canvas being carried upon
the vessel.
The De Brock turned bottom up but a short distance from Cape
Henlopen, carrying with her gold and jewels, rich bales of rare
merchandise and folds of delicate, fragile lace, representing
immense values. A few of the ship’s company succeeded in reaching
floating remnants of wreckage and were rescued by their
townspeople, who hastened to the rescue with beating hearts and
sorrowful minds. Among the survivors was the gray-haired sailing-
master, who lived to tell to his descendants and friends the many
exciting incidents connected with the French-built craft that Drew had
gained and commanded with consummate skill and gallantry.
The lifeless body of Capt. Drew, his jaunty uniform and gold
epaulets entwined with seaweed, but scarcely marred by rock or
sand shore, was found cast up on the beach, cold and rigid in death,
his handsome features proud and exultant even in death, his curly
brown hair streaming over the high collar of uniform coat, and his
dark eyes wide open, staring fixedly at the lowering heavens.
On the extreme point of Henlopen, after a heavy gale has been
raging and a fierce sea rolling in and thundering along the beach,
fragments and debris of wreckage have often been cast up by the
action of the waves, and it is current rumor in that vicinity that more
than one individual who now ranks as a leading and influential man
owes success and prominence to James Drew’s misfortune and the
treasure washed out by the sea from amid the sodden timbers of the
ill-fated De Brock. The wreck of that vessel is but one instance in a
long list of similar disasters.
At the close of the Revolution, a brig laden with specie was
wrecked in close proximity to the cape, and was followed soon after
by a huge Spanish treasure ship, her hold well ballasted with pieces
of eight and stamped bars of the precious metal. Another Spanish
bark laden with the choicest treasures from the land of the Incas
came to grief on the treacherous shoals one dark and stormy night,
but three escaping to tell the tale of horror.

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Part II The Impact of OECD Educational Initiatives and

5 Australian Education Joins the OECD: Federalism,

6 International Cooperation from the Perspective of INEP

7 The Impact of PISA Studies on Education Policy in a

8 OECD and Educational Policy in China155

9 OECD, PISA and the Educationalization of the World:

Part III OECD’s Education Initiatives and Programs in a

10 The OECD’s Campaign for Distributed Leadership: The

11 Constructing School Autonomy with Accountability as a

12 How a European ‘Fear of Falling Behind’ Discourse

13 Historicizing New Spaces and Relations of the OECD’s

14 The Formation and Workings of a Global Education

Felicitas Acosta is a researcher and professor of history of education,

und Netzwerke einer internationalen Bildungsexpertise’, was published in

Jessica Holloway is an Australian Research Council–funded DECRA

Frederik Forrai Ørskov is a doctoral candidate at the Centre for Nordic

enacted in concrete institutional settings, and its effects on education

Fig. 2.1 European Productivity Agency (EPA)—Consultative Council

Fig. 9.1 OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría (left) and President of

Fig. 12.4 BFUG membership is based on the membership of the

Introduction: What Can We Learn About

The OECD and the Contours of a Global

© The Author(s) 2019 1

The Global Governing Complex and International

IO soft governance implies that although international organizations are set

Although soft governance is a common denominator, the international

funders, partners, and stakeholders—to set the standards of what is con-

History, Education, and the OECD

work in education from a historical, international, and global perspective

Historically Informed Policy Research on the OECD’s Role

again be invoked. In historiography, this premise is nurtured by a shift

and identity-defining role, by formal and informal hierarchies, by restricted

Looking specifically at education, we find a historical research perspective

From a historiographical perspective, the book offers a contribution to both

Organization and Structure

involves an ambition to understand the power relations in the historical

THE WHALEBOATMEN OF THE REVOLUTION AND THEIR HEROIC

The Revolutionary War gave birth to a valorous and dashing class

ADVENTUROUS CAREER AND PATHETIC END OF CAPTAIN JAMES DREW.

Aalborg, Denmark Christian Ydesen

1 Introduction: What Can We Learn About Global

Part I Background of the OECD’s Rise to the Role as a

2 Learning Productivity: The European Productivity

3 The OECD, American Power and the Rise of the

4 The Birth of the OECD’s Education Policy Area 63

Part II The Impact of OECD Educational Initiatives and

5 Australian Education Joins the OECD: Federalism,

6 International Cooperation from the Perspective of INEP

7 The Impact of PISA Studies on Education Policy in a

8 OECD and Educational Policy in China155

9 OECD, PISA and the Educationalization of the World:

Part III OECD’s Education Initiatives and Programs in a

10 The OECD’s Campaign for Distributed Leadership: The

11 Constructing School Autonomy with Accountability as a

12 How a European ‘Fear of Falling Behind’ Discourse

13 Historicizing New Spaces and Relations of the OECD’s

14 The Formation and Workings of a Global Education