McDougal Littell was founded in 1969 and initially published supplementary soft-cover textbooks for secondary English teachers. After its first soft-cover books for secondary English, they branched out into additional soft-cover books for secondary Social Studies. Through the years, they expanded their publishing areas to include Mathematics, World Languages and Science, as well as Language Arts and Social Studies. In 1994, McDougal Littell became part of Houghton Mifflin Company, headquartered in Boston, MA.