Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T08:49:10.299Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

AMERICAN POLITICAL ECONOMY AND THE COMMON SCHOOL MOVEMENT: 1820–1850

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2015

Joseph Persky
Joseph Persky*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Illinois at Chicago.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Classical political economy in Great Britain was broadly supportive of education, but limited government’s role to modest assistance for charitable schools. The early classical economists in the United States, men like Thomas Cooper and Francis Wayland, in addition to supporting free trade, took this classical position with respect to education. But a more aggressive democratic claim was being advanced by the American common school movement and its supporters among Whig protectionists. The early economic tracts of William Jennison, Willard Phillips, Calvin Colton, and Henry Carey envisioned a larger role for government and advocated support for publicly financed common schools. Most notably, the leader of the common school movement, Horace Mann, built a defense for public financing based on a radical theory of property, derived from distinctly Puritan economic doctrine. If his radical positions received little support from post-Civil War mainstream economists, Mann’s practical advocacy of public taxation for public schools very much carried the day.

Type
Symposium: American Political Economy From the Age of Jackson to the Civil War
Information
Journal of the History of Economic Thought , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , June 2015 , pp. 247 - 262
Copyright
Copyright © The History of Economics Society 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Black, Sandra, and Sokoloff, Kenneth. 2006. “Long-Term Trends in Schooling: The Rise and Decline (?) of Public Education in the United States.” In Hanushek, Eric and Welch, Finis, eds., Handbook of the Economics of Education. Volume 1. Amsterdam: Esevier, pp. 69–106.Google Scholar
Bowles, Samuel, and Gintis, Herbert. 1976. Schooling in Capitalist America: Educational Reform and the Contradictions of Economic Life. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Burston, W. H. 1969. Introduction. In Burston, W. H., ed., James Mill on Education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1–40.Google Scholar
Carey, Henry. 1837. Principles of Political Economy. Philadelphia: Carey, Lee and Blanchard.Google Scholar
Carey, Henry. 1853. Letter on International Copyright. In Miscellaneous Works of Henry C. Carey. Volume 2. Philadelphia: Henry Carey Baird, 1883.Google Scholar
Colton, Calvin. 1848. Public Economy for the United States. Cincinnati: A. S. Barnes & Co. Https://books.google.com/books?id=hbFcAAAAcAAJ. Accessed 15 February 2015.Google Scholar
Conkin, Paul. 1980. Prophets of Prosperity: America’s First Political Economists. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Cooper, Thomas. 1826. Lectures on the Elements of Political Economy. Columbia, SC: Doyle E. Sweeny. Https://books.google.com/books?id=s0dVAAAAcAAJ. Accessed 15 February 2015.Google Scholar
Cubberley, Ellwood. 1948. The History of Education; Educational Practice and Progress Considered as a Phase of the Development and Spread of Western Civilization. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.Google Scholar
Culver, Raymond. [1929] 1969. Horace Mann and Religion in the Massachusetts Public Schools. New York: Arno Press.Google Scholar
Davenport, Stewart. 2008. Friends of the Unrighteous Mammon: Northern Christians and Market Capitalism, 1815–1860. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
De Marchi, Neil. 1987. “Nassau William Senior.” In Eatwell, John, Milgate, Murray, and Newman, Peter, eds., The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics. London: MacMillan, pp. 303–305.Google Scholar
Dorfman, Joseph. [1946] 1966. The Economic Mind in American Civilization. Volume 2. New York: Augustus M. Kelley.Google Scholar
Engerman, Stanley, Mariscal, Elisa, and Sokoloff, Kenneth. 2009. “The Evolution of Schooling Institutions in the Americas, 1800–1925.” In Eltis, David, Lewis, Frank, and Sokoloff, Kenneth, eds., Human Capital and Institutions: A Long-Run View. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 93–142.Google Scholar
Fitzpatrick, Edward. [1911] 1969. The Educational Views and Influence of DeWitt Clinton. New York: Arno Press.Google Scholar
Goldin, Claudia, and Katz, Lawrence. 2003. The ‘Virtues’ of the Past: Education in the First Hundred Years of the New Republic." National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper No. 9958. Http://www.nber.org/papers/w9958. Accessed 15 February 2015.Google Scholar
Go, Sun, and Lindert, Peter. 2007. “The Curious Dawn of American Public Schools.” National Bureau of Economic Research. Working Paper 13335. Http://www.nber.org/papers/w13335. Accessed 15 February 2015.Google Scholar
Groen, Mark. 2008. “The Whig Party and the Rise of Common Schools, 1837–1854: Party and Policy Reexamined.” American Educational History Journal 35: 251–260.Google Scholar
Hall, Robert. 1936. “The Projected Reform in the Secondary-School Curriculum in Argentina.” The School Review 44: 769–780.Google Scholar
Heckman, James, et al. 2010. “A New Cost-Benefit and Rate of Return Analysis for the Perry Preschool Program: A Summary.” National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper 16180. Http://www.nber.org/papers/w16180. Accessed 15 February 2015.Google Scholar
Itzkin, Ellissa. 1978. “Bentham’s Crestomathia: Utilitarian Legacy to English Education.” Journal of the History of Ideas 39: 303–316.Google Scholar
Jennison, William. 1828. An Outline of Political Economy. Philadelphia. Google Books, Https://books.google.com/books?id=eE1AAAAAYAAJ. Accessed 15 February 2015.Google Scholar
Jones, Donald. 1986. “Horace Mann, the American Common School and English Provincial Radicals in the Nineteenth Century.” History of Education 15: 235–246.Google Scholar
Kaestle, Carl. 1983. Pillars of the Republic: Common Schools and American Society, 1780–1860. New York: Hill and Wang.Google Scholar
Kay-Shuttleworth, James. 1853. Public Education. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans. Https://books.google.com/books?id=stRJAAAAMAAJ. Accessed 15 February 2015.Google Scholar
Malthus, Thomas Robert. 1826. An Essay on the Principle of Population, or a View of its Past and Present Effects on Human Happiness; with an Inquiry into our Prospects respecting the Future Removal or Mitigation of the Evils which it Occasions. Sixth edition. London: John Murray..Http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/1945. Accessed 15 February 2015.Google Scholar
Mann, Horace. 1872. Annual Reports on Education. Boston: Lee and Shepard. Http://books.google.com/books/about/Annual_Reports_on_Education.html?id=1Dk4AAAAYAAJ. Accessed 15 February 2015.Google Scholar
Mann, Mary Tyler Peabody. 1865. Life of Horace Mann. Boston: Walker, Fuller and Company. Https://books.google.com/books?id=qZRDAAAAIAAJ. Accessed 15 February 2015.Google Scholar
Marshall, Megan. 2005. The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.Google Scholar
Meardon, Stephen. 2005. “How TRIPs Got Legs: Copyright, Trade Policy, and the Role of Government in Nineteenth-Century American Economic Thought.” History of Political Economy 37 (1): 145–174.Google Scholar
Messerli, Jonathan. 1972. Horace Mann: A Biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Mill, James. 1813. “Education of the Poor.” Edinburgh Review 21: 207–219.Google Scholar
Mill, James. [1815] 2010. “Education.” In Burston, W. H., ed., James Mill on Education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1–40.Google Scholar
Mill, John Stuart. [1848] 1965. The Principles of Political Economy. In John M. Robson, ed., Collected Works of John Stuart Mill. Volumes II–III. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/102. Accessed 15 February 2015.Google Scholar
Mill, John Stuart. [1859] 1977. On Liberty..In John M. Robson, ed., Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XVIII, Essays on Politics and Society Part I. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/233. Accessed 15 February 2015.Google Scholar
Miller, William. 1966. “The Economics of Education in English Classical Economics.” Southern Economic Journal 32: 294–309.Google Scholar
Moe, Terry. 2001. A Primer on America’s Schools. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press.Google Scholar
Morgan, Joy. 1938. Horace Mann at Antioch. Washington, DC: National Education Association.Google Scholar
Paine, Thomas. 1791. The Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke’s Attack on the French Revolution. Second edition. London: J.S. Jordan. Http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/798. Accessed 15 February 2015.Google Scholar
Peart, Sandra, and Levy, David. 2005. The “Vanity of the Philosopher.” Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Phillips, Willard. 1828. A Manual of Political Economy with Particular Reference to the Institutions Resources and Conditions of the United States. Boston: Hilliard, Gray, Little and Wilkins. Https://books.google.com/books?id=T15XAAAAYAAJ. Accessed 15 February 2015.Google Scholar
Ravitch, Diane. 2001. “American Traditions of Education.” In Moe, Terry, ed., A Primer on America’s Schools. Stanford CA: Hoover Institution Press, pp. 1–14.Google Scholar
Ravitch, Diane. 2010. The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Ryken, Leland. 1986. Worldly Saints: The Puritans as They Really Were. Grand Rapids, MI: Academie Books.Google Scholar
Senior, Nassau. 1854. Political Economy. Third edition. London: Richard Griffin and Co. Http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/116/36060/902696. Accessed 15 February 2015.Google Scholar
Silver, Harold. 1975. English Education and the Radicals, 1780–1850. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Smith, Adam. [1776] 1904. An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Edited by Canaan, Edwin. London: Methuen. Http://lf-oll.s3.amazonaws.com/titles/119/0206-02_Bk.pdf. Accessed 15 February 2015.Google Scholar
Taylor, Joyce. 1996. Joseph Lancaster: ThePoor Child's Friend: Educating the Poor in the Early Nineteenth Century. Kent, UK: Campanile Press.Google Scholar
Tharp, Louise. 1953. Until Victory: Horace Mann and Mary Peabody. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.Google Scholar
Vinovskis, Maris. 1970. “Horace Mann on the Economic Productivity of Education.” New England Quarterly 43: 550–571.Google Scholar
Wayland, Francis. 1837. Elements of Political Economy. New York: Leavitt, Lord and Company. Google Books. Https://books.google.com/books?id=bl8EAAAAQAAJ. Accessed 15 February 2015.Google Scholar
West, Edwin G. 1975. Education and the Industrial Revolution. Second edition. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.Google Scholar