The Founding Fathers, Education, and "The Great Contest"

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   1. Introduction

      • Benjamin Justice

      Pages 1-20

3. Methods

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 21-21

      PDF

   2. The Mysterious No. 3

      • Lisa Green

      Pages 23-44

   3. “Raked from the Rubbish”: Stylometric Authorship Attribution and the 1795 American Philosophical Society Education Contest

      • Eric Strome

      Pages 45-65

4. Meanings

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 67-67

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   2. False Start: The Failure of an Early “Race to the Top”

      • Campbell Scribner

      Pages 69-83

   3. “Encouraging Useful Knowledge” in the Early Republic: The Roles of State Governments and Voluntary Organizations

      • Nancy Beadie

      Pages 85-102

   4. Race and Schooling in Early Republican Philadelphia

      • Hilary Moss

      Pages 103-117

   5. Gender and Citizenship in Educational Plans in the New Republic

      • Margaret Nash

      Pages 119-134

   6. The Significance of the “French School” in Early National Female Education

      • Kim Tolley

      Pages 135-153

   7. The Place of Religion in Early National School Plans

      • Benjamin Justice

      Pages 155-174

   8. The Perceived Dangers of Study Abroad, 1780–1800: Nationalism, Internationalism, and the Origins of the American University

      • Adam R. Nelson

      Pages 175-197

5. Materials: Essays from the American Philosophical Society Education Contest, 1795–1797

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 199-199

      PDF

   2. Introduction to the Essays: Reading the Late Eighteenth Century in the Early Twenty-First

      • Benjamin Justice

      Pages 201-203

   3. Remarks on Education: Illustrating the Close Connection Between Virtue and Wisdom: To which is Annexed, a System of Liberal Education

      • Samuel Harrison Smith

      Pages 205-217

   4. An Essay on the Best System of Liberal Education, Adapted to the Genius of the Government of the United States. Comprehending Also, an Uniform, General Plan for Instituting and Conducting Public Schools, in this Country, on the Principles of the Most Extensive Utility

      • Samuel Knox

      Pages 219-232

   5. Review of Essay No. 3, “A Letter to the American Philosophical Society in Answer to their First Prize Question.”

      • Benjamin Justice

      Pages 233-238

   6. On Education and Public Schools

      • Hiram

      Pages 239-241

   7. A Plan for the Education of Youth

      • Academicus

      Pages 243-249

Leading historians provide new insights into the founding generation's views on the place of public education in America. This volume explores enduring themes, such as gender, race, religion, and central vs. local control, in seven essays of the 1790s on how to implement public education in the new USA. The original essays are included as well.

• American History
• Education
• American Revolution
• History of Education
• Early Republic
• Philadelphia
• Founding Fathers
• Intellectual History
• American Philosophical Society
• University of Pennsylvania
• Penn
• eighteenth century
• 19th century
• colonial times
• colonial period
• revolutionary period
• education
• freedom
• gender
• Generation
• liberty
• methods
• Nation
• nationalism
• philosophy
• religion
• USA

"Historians are detectives, and the sleuths in this remarkable book show us how to examine important documents from the late eighteenth century. Anyone interested in the effects of the American Revolution will love this book." - Robert L. Hampel, Professor, School of Education, University of Delaware, USA

"This marvelous collaborative study, edited by Benjamin Justice, explores the views of a group of essay writers about the relationship between public education and citizenship in the new republic. The 1797 essays, five of which have never before been published, are here reproduced and several of their anonymous authors discovered through scholarly detective work. Contributors to the volume explore the way the essay writers dealt with the relationship of religion to education, the silence on the education of African-Americans, the implications of the few comments about women's education, and how the essayists dealt with the costs and opportunity for education in a nation freeing itself from a restrictive European model of elite education." - Paul G. E. Clemens, Professor of History, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA

Carl Kaestle, Brown University, USA Lisa Green, University of California - Riverside, USA Eric Strome, Columbia University, USA Campbell Scribner, University of Wisconsin - Madison, USA Nancy Beadie, University of Washington, USA Hilary Moss, Amherst College, USA Kim Tolley, Notre Dame de Namur University, USA Margaret Nash, University of California - Riverside, USA Adam Nelson, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA

Policies and ethics