Chart and Compass: General History Textbooks and Instruction in Boston, 1821-1923

1. Chart and Compass: General History Textbooks and Instruction in Boston, 1821-1923     Justin Reich Harvard Graduate School of Education

2. Questions • How was General History instruction and curriculum implemented in the century following English High’s establishment? • What were the narratives in General History textbooks used in 19th century Boston, and how did those narratives articulate America’s place in human history? • To what extent does historical instruction in 19th century Boston cohere or conflict with the literature of 19th century social studies in America?

3. Master Narrative of History of History Instruction • “The AHA and the Seven effectively gave birth to modern history education in the United States.” • Orill and Shaprio (2005), “From Bold Beginnings to an Uncertain Future: The Discipline of History and History Education." • “However, prior to 1861, what would later be called social studies was in a rather chaotic condition” (p. 5). • “ The report of the Madison Conference presented the framework for the modern style history that swept into the curriculum” (p. 7). • Evans (2004), The Social Studies Wars

4. These were the good old days. “Those in charge of these schools had so much confidence and faith in the leadership of the American Historical Association,” recalled Rolla M. Tryon in 1935, “that they almost ceased merely offering history, but required it instead.” Scholars have described a period of cooperation between colleges and schools in curriculum making that began in 1884. For historians, this defeat of General History was evidence of their own breakthrough of influence in high schools. The course, it seemed, was gone with the wind. “It was eliminated root and branch,” a Midwestern professor commented in 1919, “and the space which it once occupied has since been so covered that few, if any, of the later generation of school pupils know of its former existence. - Allardyce (1990), Toward World History: American Historians and the Coming of the World History Course, Journal of World History 1(1)

5. Evidence of the influence of the AHA and NCSS on Boston’s History Curriculum • And in fact, Boston adopts a block system 20 years before the Madison Conference

6. History of World History in Boston: Three part argument • Early world history instruction was dominated by textbook recitation • To abandon the textbook “would be for the mariner on the boundless ocean to throw overboard his compass and chart.” • Textbooks didn’t change; a “millenarian” narrative structure endured through generations of General History textbooks • Millenarian as “universalizing teleology” • Curriculum and instruction was bound by the constraints of the textbook narrative structure, and since textbooks remained constant, curriculum remained bound by stable constraints

7. General History Textbooks in Boston 1821-1835: Whelpley’s Compend of History from Earliest Times (and others) 1835-1877: Worcester’s Elements of History Ancient and Modern 1877-1890: Swinton’s Outlines of History Ancient, Medieval and Modern 1890-1923: Sheldon Studies in General History Myers’ General History

8. 1821-1835 Whelpley’s Compend

9. George B. EmersonEnglish High Schools's First Master • From George Emerson’s Remembrances of an Old Teacher (p.58) • The quotation is from a description of his teaching at the Boston’s Girl’s School, but it represents well the instruction of the era.

10. Recitation Questions: From Rev. C. Lenny’s Questions for Examination of Tytler’s Elements (p. 1) From Alexander Fraser Tytler’s Elements of General History (p.18)

11. Civic Piety in Post-Revolution America • “ Thus did nationalism, millennialism, and evangelicism converge in an ideology of civic piety and pious civility.” • From Lawrence Cremin’s American Education: The National Experience, 1783-1876 (p. 57) • “The principles of democracy are identical with the principles of Christianity.” • From Catherine Beecher’s Domestic Economy (p.25)

12. Whelpley's Compend- 1821 “All events, past, present and to come, are employed in directing and completing the destines of all creatures, in subservience to that infinitely great and glorious kingdom, which shall never be removed.”

13. Versions of Early Course Titles • Boston School Committee: • Ancient and Modern History and Chronology • English High School: • General History • 3 years • 2 years

14. 1835-1877 Worcester’s General History

15. Worcester's General History 1835-1877 “It is a brief barren abstract of events, put together with no other relation of cause and effect than that which chronology makes inevitable; it states facts without the least regard to their relative importance and gives the same apace and emphasis of comment to a Welch foray, whose consequences died with its slain, as to the act of adding to Magna Charta the clause requiring the assent of Parliament to the imposition of taxation.” -From the Report of the Annual Examiner, 1845, Boston School Committee

16. Worcester's General History 1835-1877 “Can the [Mexican] war be justified on moral or religious grounds? But however this question may be answered, it is to be hoped that a beneficent Providence will bring good out of evil, and cause, in the final result, an advancement of human freedom and human happiness, of good government and of true religion. “ (pp. 327)

17. Boston Curriculum using Worcester • 1860 • 1 year • 1870 • 3 years (2 hours per week) • I- Ancient • II- Medieval • III- Modern

18. Worcester (1832) vs. Madison Blocks

19. 1877-1890 Swinton’s Outlines

20. Swinton's Outlines- 1877-1890 Expanding the definition of Millennialism as a universalizing tendency

21. 1890-1923 Myers and Sheldon Sheldon’s Studies in General History Myers’ General History

22. Sheldon’s Studies in General HistoryChapter Epitaphs • Medieval: “There is a destiny that shapes our ends, rough-hew them as we will.”- Shakespeare • Modern : “Infinite Providence, thou wilt make the day dawn.” - Richter • 19th Century: “Ring out a slowly dying cause,/ And ancient forms of party stryfe;/ Ring in the nobler modes of life,/ With sweeter manners, purer laws./ Ring out false pride in place and blood,/ The civic slander and the spite / Ring in the love of truth and right/ Ring in the common love of good./ Ring in the valiant man and free,/ The larger heart, the kindlier hand; / Ring out the darkness of the land,/ Ring in the Christ that is to be.” - Tennyson

23. Myers' General History

24. Myers- Curriculum and Adoption Changes • 1906 • Three points (half-credits) • Ancient • Medieval • Modern • 1923 • Myers General History removed from approved book list • Myers Ancient and Myers Modern remain on the list

26. Implications of the “Boston Model” • For Historians and Historiography • History instruction in the 19th century is not chaotic; it’s organized by textbooks • The Committees of N are not a watershed; they recommend a course of study already supported by textbooks • The history of world history instruction and social studies in America go back to the early Republic, and the stamp of Millenarianism remains a key organizational principle in the century that follows, and perhaps into our own time.

28. Implications of the “Boston Model” • For Policy-makers • Textbooks in the 19th century exerted powerful constraints on instruction and curriculum and perhaps continue to do so. Reforming curriculum without reforming textbooks may be folly. • For Educators and Teacher-Educators • Textbooks, which remain remarkably consistent since the 1820’s, retain the cultural legacy of civic piety and millenarianism. These ancient biases continue to shape our current instruction, often in ways we don’t recognize. • Identifying these ancient biases in contemporary texts, can be quite fun, and quite enlightening

29. Acknowlegements • Many thanks to those who read earlier versions of this presentation: • Jill Lepore • Julie Reuben • Meira Levinson • Becca Miller • Aradhana Mudumbi • Anna Saavedra

31. Whelpley’s Table of Contents Volume I: Ancient Volume II: Modern • Mesopotamia • Assyria • Persia • Greece • Macedon • Rome • Europe • Crusades • Turks • Germany • France • Britain • Present Day • Europe • Asia • Africa • America

32. Worcester's Table of Contents • Egypt • The Phoenicians • Assyria and Babylon • Persia • Greece • Rome • The Middle Ages • France • England • Europe • America

33. Swinton’s Table of Contents • Modern History • 16th Century • 17th Century • 18th Century • 19th Century • Ancient • Egypt • Assyria and Babylon • Hebrews • Phoenicians • Hindoos • Persia • Greece • Rome • Medieval History • Byzantium • Charlemagne • Crusades • Chivalry • Age of Revival

34. Myers Ancient History Medieval and Modern History • Eastern Nations • Egypt • Babylon • Assyria • Hebrews • Phoenicians • Perisa • India and China • Greece • Rome • Middle Ages • Dark Ages • Age of revival • Modern • Reformation • Revolution • Democratic Reaction