National Mythmaking in World History: Tytler’s Elements of General History in American Schools, 1782-1823

• In Event: Division F Vice Presidential Session: Uncovering Hidden Narratives in American Education

Abstract

This paper contributes to scholarship on history education and early American nationalism by exploring the trans-Atlantic adaptation of Alexander Tytler’s Elements of General History from the 1780s to the 1820s. Editions of Tytler’s work reveal that American educators adapted European works for the secondary subject of General History in the early 19th century. American editors made alterations including the addition of religious content as well as content on American history tinged with nationalism. I suggest that the continued popularity of Tytler’s and other General History textbooks written by European authors demonstrates that European universal histories supported and enhanced American nationalism in many important respects. In effect, the Enlightenment-era tradition of universal history gave the United States a mythic past.

Author

• Stephen J. Jackson, University of Kansas