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Robert Baden–Powell: Scouting for Boys. A Handbook for Instruction in Good Citizenship. Ed. with an Introduction and Notes by Elleke Boehmer [2004]. Oxford: Oxford University Press, reissued 2018.

Robert Baden-Powell’s Scouting for Boys can certainly be considered a pivotal text in the history of Western civilization: firmly rooted in late nineteenth-century imperialism, it came to be the foundation of what can perhaps be considered the most successful international youth movement of the twentieth century. While some of its tenets, such as recurrent references to British superiority as well as to the virtues of discipline and obedience and the glory of dying in the process of saving the lives of others, will appear revolting to twenty-first-century readers, other parts of the text may appear surprisingly modern, such as chapters on the protection of animals or the dangers of smoking. Still other chapters, by contrast, verge on the ridiculous, as when rules of games are given which may remind us of children’s birthday parties. The notorious chapter on masturbation, which Baden-Powell removed from the final text at the “strong advice” of his publishers and which the present edition prints as an appendix, may amuse or horrify us, depending on how seriously we take Baden-Powell’s views.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37307/j.1866-5381.2020.01.27
Lizenz: ESV-Lizenz
ISSN: 1866-5381
Ausgabe / Jahr: 1 / 2020
Veröffentlicht: 2020-05-21
Dokument Robert Baden–Powell: Scouting for Boys. A Handbook for Instruction in Good Citizenship. Ed. with an Introduction and Notes by Elleke Boehmer [2004]. Oxford: Oxford University Press, reissued 2018.