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PUBLIC OPINION AND THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
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SOME RECENT BORZOI TEXTS
THE HISTORY AND PROSPECTS OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
edited by Harry Elmer Barnes
A GUIDE TO THE STUDY OF ENGLISH HISTORY
by William T. Morgan
HISTORY AND SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE
by Harry Elmer Barnes
FACTORS IN MODERN HISTORY
by A. F. Pollard
A HISTORY OF RUSSIA
by Sir Bernard Pares
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Public Opinion and
The Teaching of History
in the United States
BY
BESSIE LOUISE PIERCE, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of History, University of Iowa
Head of the Department of Social Studies
University High School
NEW YORK
ALFRED A. KNOPF
1926
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COPYRIGHT, 1926, BY ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC.
SET UP, ELECTROTYPED, PRINTED AND BOUND
BY THE PLIMPTON PRESS, NORWOOD, MASS.
PAPER SUPPLIED BY S. D. WARREN & CO.
BOSTON, MASS.
MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
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TO
ARTHUR M. SCHLESINGER
IN GRATITUDE
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PREFACE
Many influences have conditioned the teaching of historyin the public schools—local and national, statutory andconstitutional, ephemeral and enduring, religious, educational,racial and patriotic.
It is the purpose of this study to give an historical accountof some of the attempts to control the teaching ofhistory in the public schools. The first four chapters tracethe legislative control that has been exerted in all periodsof our history, beginning with the educational enactmentsof the early colonies and following the development of thecurriculum to the present time.
Such statutory control falls into fairly definite periods.The first embraces the earliest statutes relating to publiceducation. During this period history was introduced intothe school curriculum as a separate subject specified bylaw. The next stage, 1860 to 1900, was characterized bythe influences set in motion by the Civil War and theEconomic Revolution. In the years from 1900 to 1917,the history curriculum reflected the new interest of theAmerican people in the social and economic conditions thathad developed. From 1917 to the present, the dominantnote has been a dynamic patriotism growing out of theWorld War.
Besides the legislative aspects of the subject, I haveendeavored to set forth the propagandist influences ontextbook-making exerted by re