The Education of Things

Mechanical Literacy in British Children's Literature, 1762–1860

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Elizabeth Massa Hoiem

By the close of the eighteenth century, learning to read and write became closely associated with learning about the material world, and a vast array of games and books from the era taught children how to comprehend the physical world of “things.” Examining a diverse archive of popular science books, primers, grammars, toys, manufacturing books, automata, and literature from Maria Edgeworth, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Anna Letitia Barbauld, The Education of Things attests that material culture has long been central to children’s literature.

Elizabeth Massa Hoiem argues that the combination of reading and writing with manual tinkering and scientific observation promoted in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Britain produced new forms of “mechanical literacy,” competencies that were essential in an industrial era. As work was repositioned as play, wealthy children were encouraged to do tasks in the classroom that poor children performed for wages, while working-class children honed skills that would be crucial to their social advancement as adults.

Paperback
Paperback

Resources

Resource Collections

8 Total Collections

Single Resources

86 Total Resources

Contents

List of Illustrations

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1
What Children Grasp
The Tangible Properties of Objects

(Collections: Interlocutor Gestures, Cabinets and Miniatures, Objects and Collections in Reading Lessons, and Children as Consumers)

Chapter 2
Moving Bodies
Manual Labor and Children’s Play in Mechanical Philosophy Books

(Collection: Mechanical Philosophy)

Chapter 3
“The Empire of Man over Material Things”
Children’s Books on Manufacturing and Trade

(Collection: Production Stories and Domestic Goods)

Chapter 4
Self-Governing Machines
Automata and Autonomy in Maria Edgeworth’s Fiction

(Collection: Automata)

Chapter 5
“Knowledge That Shall Be Power in Their Hands”
Radical Grammars for Working-Class Readers

(Collection: Grammars)

Conclusion
William Lovett’s Case of Moveable Type

Notes

Index

Metadata

  • rights
    Copyright © 2024 by University of Massachusetts Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America ISBN 978-1-62534-755-8 (paper); 756-5 (hardcover) Designed by Sally Nichols Set in Fairfield LT Standard Printed and bound by Books International, Inc. Cover design by adam b. bohannon Cover art: Ladder of Learning ([London]: ca. 1850). Cotsen Children’s Library, Courtesy of Princeton University Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in- Publication Data Names: Hoiem, Elizabeth Massa, author. Title: The education of things : mechanical literacy in British children's literature, 1762–1860 / Elizabeth Massa Hoiem. Description: Amherst : University of Massachusetts Press, [2023] | Series: Childhoods : interdisciplinary perspectives on children and youth | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2023027641 (print) | LCCN 2023027642 (ebook) | ISBN 9781625347558 (paperback) | ISBN 9781625347565 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781685750374 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Children's literature, English—History and criticism. | Machinery in literature. | Work in literature. | Material culture in literature. | Reading (Primary) —Great Britain—History. | Technical education—Great Britain—History. Classification: LCC PR990 .H65 2023 (print) | LCC PR990 (ebook) | DDC 820.9/9282—dc23/eng/20230906 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023027641 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023027642 British Library Cataloguing-in- Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
  • isbn
    978162534758
  • publisher
    University of Massachusetts Press
  • publisher place
    Amherst & Boston
  • restrictions
    All Rights Reserved
  • rights holder
    University of Massachusetts Press
  • rights territory
    World Wide
  • series title
    Childhoods: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Childhood and Youth