Justin Reich

Harvard Graduate School of Education

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?

“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

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)

And in fact, Boston adopts a block system 20 years before the Madison Conference

Early world history instruction was dominated by textbook recitationTo 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 textbooksMillenarian 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

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

-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.

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)

“ 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)

“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.”

Boston School Committee:Ancient and Modern History and Chronology

English High School:General History

3 years2 years

“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

“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)

18601 year

18703 years (2 hours per week)I- AncientII- MedievalIII- Modern

Worcester’s Chapters Madison Conference Blocks

EgyptThe PhoenciansAssyria and BabylonPersiaGreeceRome

4th Year: Greek and Roman History with Oriental Connections

The Middle Ages

France 5th Year: French history

England 6th Year: English history

Europe

America 7th Year: American History

Expanding the definition of Millennialism as a universalizing tendency

Sheldon’s Studies in General History

Myers’ General History

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

1906Three points (half-credits)

AncientMedievalModern

1923Myers General History removed from approved

book listMyers Ancient and Myers Modern remain on

the list

Years

Textbook Course Structure Impending Millennia

1821-1824

Whelpley, Compend and Tytler, Elements of History

3 years of General Universal SalvationUniversal Democracy

1824-1835

unclear 2 years of General

1835-1860

Worcester, General History

2 years of General Universal SalvationUniversal Democracy

1860-1870

Worcester, General History

1 year of General Universal SalvationUniversal Democracy

1870-1877

Worcester, General History

3 years (2 hours/week) of Ancient/Med/Modern

Universal SalvationUniversal Democracy

1877-1890

Swinton, Outlines of History

3 years (2 hours/week) of Ancient/Med/Modern

Universal Aryan Unification

1890-1906

Sheldon, General History and Myers, General History

3 years (2 hours/week) of Ancient/Med/Modern

Universal World Order

1906-1923

Myers, General History

3 half-credits of Ancient/Med/Modern

Universal World Government

1923- Myers, Ancient and Myers, Modern

3 half-credits of Ancient/Med/Modern

Universal World Government

For Historians and HistoriographyHistory instruction in the 19th century is not

chaotic; it’s organized by textbooksThe 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.

For Policy-makersTextbooks 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-EducatorsTextbooks, 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

Many thanks to those who read earlier versions of this presentation:Jill LeporeJulie ReubenMeira LevinsonBecca MillerAradhana MudumbiAnna Saavedra

MesopotamiaAssyriaPersia

GreeceMacedon

Rome

EuropeCrusadesTurksGermanyFranceBritain

Present DayEuropeAsiaAfricaAmerica

Volume II: Modern

EgyptThe PhoeniciansAssyria and

BabylonPersiaGreeceRome

The Middle AgesFranceEnglandEuropeAmerica

AncientEgyptAssyria and

BabylonHebrewsPhoeniciansHindoosPersiaGreeceRome

Medieval HistoryByzantiumCharlemagneCrusadesChivalryAge of

Revival

Modern History16th Century17th Century18th Century19th Century

Eastern NationsEgyptBabylonAssyriaHebrewsPhoeniciansPerisaIndia and China

GreeceRome

Middle AgesDark AgesAge of revival

ModernReformationRevolutionDemocratic

Reaction

Medieval and Modern History