{"product_id":"the-education-of-things-mechanical-literacy-in-british-childrens-literature-1762-1860-9781625347558","title":"The Education of Things: Mechanical Literacy in","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e 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 historical periodicals, grammar books, toys, machinery displays, and literature from Maria Edgeworth, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Anna Letitia Barbauld, \u003ci\u003eThe Education of Things\u003c\/i\u003e attests that material culture has long been central to children’s literature. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReading and learning about the physical world go hand in hand in Hoiem’s fascinating archive, and her focus on working-class children as well as middle-class ones redresses the bias toward the latter in much children’s literature criticism.\" - Hannah Field, author of \u003ci\u003ePlaying with the Book: Victorian Movable Picture Books and the Child Reader\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Education of Things\u003c\/i\u003e is an important contribution to the study of children’s literature and the history of education—as well as to histories of object-based knowledge. Hoiem’s creative, multidisciplinary approach makes connections among fields that are often considered separately, making this a particularly exciting and novel intervention.\" - Sarah Anne Carter, author of \u003ci\u003eObject Lessons: How Nineteenth-Century Americans Learned to Make Sense of the Material World\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e List of Illustrations\u003cbr\u003e Preface \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Introduction \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Chapter 1\u003cbr\u003e What Children Grasp\u003cbr\u003e The Tangible Properties of Objects \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Chapter 2\u003cbr\u003e Moving Bodies\u003cbr\u003e Manual Labor and Children’s Play in Mechanical Philosophy Books \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Chapter 3\u003cbr\u003e “The Empire of Man over Material Things”\u003cbr\u003e Children’s Books on Manufacturing and Trade \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Chapter 4\u003cbr\u003e Self-Governing Machines\u003cbr\u003e Automata and Autonomy in Maria Edgeworth’s Fiction \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Chapter 5\u003cbr\u003e “Knowledge That Shall Be Power in Their Hands”\u003cbr\u003e Radical Grammars for Working-Class Readers \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Conclusion\u003cbr\u003e William Lovett’s Case of Moveable Type \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e Index \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of Massachusetts Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51041774698839,"sku":"9781625347558","price":24.26,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781625347558.jpg?v=1750951626","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/the-education-of-things-mechanical-literacy-in-british-childrens-literature-1762-1860-9781625347558","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}