The McGuffey Readers, published between 1836 and 1960, sold 122 million copies, ranking it near the top for any book ever published. Since 1961 it is said they sell at a rate of some 30,000 copies per year.
McGuffey, William Holmes, 1800-1873 is credited with the following quotation:
“The christian religion, is the religion of our country. From it are derived our prevalent notions of the character of God, the great moral governor of the universe. On its doctrines are founded the peculiarities of our free institutions.”
It is no surprise, then, that the early volumes were full of Calvinist sentiments, that of replacing civil law with religious law, the tendency of a significant voting block today1.
Nonetheless, the book is well done and instructive, and the Calvinist tendencies disappeared from later volumes.
View McGuffey’s Primer online, a real delight!
1 For more information, read Republican Gomorrah from Nation Books.
