Books › A short but comprehensive system of the geography of the world
A short but comprehensive system of the geography of the world
231 pages
Step into an 18th-century schoolhouse with this catechetical journey through the globe as it was once understood.
What it feels like
Reading this early American textbook feels like unearthing a time capsule from a colonial schoolhouse. The experience is deeply antiquarian, driven by a steady, rhythmic question-and-answer format designed for rote memorization rather than narrative flow. You are immersed in a dusty, structured atmosphere where the prose is formal, didactic, and unapologetically earnest. It offers a fascinating, sometimes jarring window into the eighteenth-century worldview, complete with the biases and geographical limitations of the era. The emotional texture is one of historical curiosity, inviting you to sit at a wooden desk and absorb the world exactly as a student would have in the late seventeen hundreds. It will thoroughly delight historians of education and anyone captivated by the evolution of human knowledge.
- Mood
- antiquarian
- scholarly
- dusty
- structured
- Tone
- didactic
- authoritative
- archaic
- earnest
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- historical pedagogy · 18th-century worldviews · rote learning · early American education
- The writing
- The prose is strictly catechetical, relying on a formal, rhythmic question-and-answer format typical of early primers.
- The arc
- The reader experiences a steady accumulation of archaic facts, moving from modern detachment to a deep immersion in an 18th-century classroom.
- Who it's for
- Antiquarians and history buffs who delight in exploring how past generations understood and taught the world.
Content notes
- outdated cultural depictions
- historical ethnocentrism
About the book
Date of publication suggested by Evans. A "Letter to the editor of the edition printed in Boston." dated Dec. 4, 1795, which first appeared in the second Boston edition, [1796] (Evans 28608) appears on p. [4]
Edition statement transposed; follows "By Nathaniel Dwight." on title page
Trumbull, J.H. Connecticut, 620
Johnson, H.A. New London, 1312
Johnson, H.A. New London, 1357
Digital image available in the Readex/Newsbank Digital Evans series
Microfiche. [New York: Readex Microprint, 1985] 11 x 15 cm. (Early American imprints. First series; no. 30373)
Microfiche. [New York: Readex Microprint, 1985] 11 x 15 cm. (Early American imprints. First series; no. 33654)
Description from Open Library.
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