Archives of Instruction: Nineteenth-Century Rhetorics, Readers, and Composition Books in the United States

Studies in Writing and Rhetoric

by Jean Ferguson Carr, Stephen L. Carr, Lucille M. Schultz

Both a historical recovery and a critical rethinking of the functions and practices of textbooks, Archives of Nineteenth-Century Rhetorics, Readers, and Composition Books in the United States argues for an alternative understanding of our rhetorical traditions. The authors describe how the pervasive influence of nineteenth-century literacy textbooks demonstrate the early emergence of substantive instruction in reading and writing. Tracing the histories of widespread educational practices, the authors treat the textbooks as an important means of cultural formation that restores a sense of their distinguished and unique contributions.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, few people in the United States had access to significant school education or to the materials of instruction. By century’s end, education was a mass—though not universal—experience, and literacy textbooks were ubiquitous artifacts, used both in home and in school by a growing number of learners from diverse backgrounds. Many of the books have been forgotten, their contributions slighted or dismissed, or they are remembered through a haze of nostalgia as tokens of an idyllic form of schooling. Archives of Instruction suggests strategies for re-reading the texts and details the watersheds in the genre, providing a new perspective on the material conditions of schooling, book publication, and emerging practices of literacy instruction. The volume includes a substantial bibliography of primary and secondary works related to literacy instruction at all levels of education in the United States during the nineteenth century.

312 pages, Paperback

First published February 21, 2005

Reviews

[Lance · Rating 5 out of 5]

Judging by the title, one might think this book not so interesting or useful, except as bibliographic reference. On the contrary, it is one of the most useful books I've read for understanding composition and rhetoric in the 19th century, particularly how to make sense of the slew of textbooks (many of which accessible digitally these days). In particular, the chapter "Constructing Composition Books" was eye-opening to some of the discursive roots of composition textbooks that generally lay outside our discipline's purview. The author also does a great "counter-reading" of two textbooks that actually show robust (though implicit) theories of composition that are rhetorical in nature. After reading this book, you will walk away with a diverse sense of rhetoric and composition in the 19th century, an era that is usually lumped together as dry and deserted.