Moral culture in the McGuffey Readers 1836 to 1901

In 1836 William Holmes McGuffey, educator, professor, and college president, fulfilled his contractual obligation and presented the publishing house of W.B. Smith and Truman with the manuscript of his Readers for young children. At the very beginning of the 20th century The American Book Company published a revised set of Readers using McGuffey's name, The New McGuffey First Reader, Second Reader, etc., in 1901. This dissertation is an analysis of the development and changes in The McGuffey Readers from the first publication in 1836 to the revisions in 1901, and how the editors sought to shape the moral content of the Readers for succeeding generations.;There are two reasons to examine moral education in the United States in the 19th century. By continuing to use McGuffey's name, the publishers were attempting to translate the popularity of McGuffey's original vision of American's moral culture to each succeeding generation, and though they restricted themselves to McGuffey's general approach, they also needed to adapt his vision to developments in education, morality, and views of child nurture in order to sell schoolbooks to contemporary textbook adopters. These dual dynamics provide a window into the ways in which educators and textbook publishers were attempting to shape readers' attitudes, beliefs, and behavior throughout the century.;Our examination proceeds by analyzing the individual selections compiled in each reader, noting which selections were continued, added, or removed over time, and finally presenting what would have been the cumulative effect or shape of the Readers. In the end, not only is the development of moral education revealed, but also the development of the character and nature of what it means to be an American. McGuffey depended almost entirely on evangelical Protestantism as the driving force behind his assessment of what the appropriate attitudes, values, and behaviors in his Readers should be. Within a decade, this force proved too narrow and ultimately untenable in the continuously diversifying American population and the simultaneous liberalization of Calvinistic theology. Nevertheless, William Holmes McGuffey's voice can be heard through his Readers even to this day. This is why he is called the School Master to the Nation.