Emiles and Sophies: How Noah Webster Educated America’s Youth Like Characters from Rousseau
Publication
, Journal Article
Harris, M
Published in: History of Political Thought
In 1785, Noah Webster was writing the schoolbooks that made him America’s most influential educator. The same year, he published two ‘fan fiction’ sequels to Rousseau’s
and he tried to replicate the civic-education journey described
in book five of
. Webster’s focus on book five, and on imagining what comes after it, indicates that he considered the education in
earlier books a
. What America still required to achieve nationhood was Rousseau’s fused project
of female education and (male) civic education. America had its ‘Emiles’. Now, to complete its education, it needed â–˜Sophie’.
