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