The New Eclectic Series: Elementary Geography is an 1896 geography textbook targeting young children, likely fourth to sixth grade.
The textbook is chaptered with number paragraphs which describe facts (actual or presumed) intended for the student to learn. There are images, maps, and questions to test students’ knowledge.
For example:
112. In a Republic, the people choose some person as Governor or President, whose duty it is to see that the laws are not disobeyed.
It’s the equivalent of Cliff Notes, telling you exactly what you need to memorize without struggling through poorly written prose from which your expected to extract the salient points. Painless and simple for both teacher and student.
I’ve been reading Lies My Teach Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen where the author explores contemporary history textbooks and shows, among other things, how history is taught with a white, male, Christian, Euro- and American-centric bias. Elementary Geography may precede Lies by a century, but it clearly illustrates what Loewen was describing.
The first chapter is providing definitions for what I assume is needed as a basis for the following chapters. The first problem I notice is the now The Races Of Men devolves into a discussion worthy of Crayola colors:
91. The People living in one part of the world often differ from those living in other parts in the color of their skin and in their general appearance.
92. People of the same color and appearance are said to belong to the same Race.
93. There are five races: the Caucasian or white race, the Mongolian or yellow race, the Ethiopian or black race, the Malay or brown race, and the American or red race.
94. The Caucasian or white race is superior to all, and exceeds every other race in numbers. White men can be found all over the earth, but they are most numerous in Europe.
95. The Mongolian or yellow race is almost as numerous as the white race. Nearly all the yellow people live in Asia.
96. The Ethiopian race lives principally in Africa. The black people are called negroes. The negroes in our country are the decendants of Africans.
97. The Malay or brown race lives in Australia, the islands of the Pacific and Indian oceans, and the south-eastern part of Asia.
98. The American or red race lived in America before the white men came here. The people of this race are called Indians, and now live mostly in the unsettled parts of North American and South American.
Obviously, let’s start with Caucasian: in 1890 there were approximately 300 million people in Europe and 70 million in the United States, less than the estimated 450 million in China. I won’t touch the superior to all. Saying that American (“Indians”) lived in America before white men immigrated here is admitting that American/Indians are the true natives, something which Loewen points out is missing from many contemporary textbooks.
The very next section Manner of Living categorizes people in a manner that further attempts to show white superiority:
99. Those people who have houses to live in, books to read, schools, railroads, and steamboats are called Civilized people.
100. The greater portion of the civilized people live in Europe and America, and belong to the white race.
101. Half-civilized people have no railroads nor steam-boats, and not many books. Some of them live in houses, and have towns and cities; others have no fixed homes, but live in tents and wander about from one part of the country to another with their flocks and herds.
102. Most of the yellow race, and that part of the brown race living in Asia, are half-civilized.
103. Savage, or Uncivilized, people do not live in houses, but in rude huts or in the woods without any shelter. They know nothing about reading or writing, and spend much of their time in hunting and fishing.
104. Many of the natives in Africa and Australian, and the Indians in America, are savages.
No question that railway growth in Europe exceeded growth in other continents but railways did exist and were growing in China, Japan, and Taiwan: the Trans-Siberian Railway opened in 1891. Russian literacy was 24% (19.7% in rural areas), so unlikely to find many books (aside from the Bible) in serfs’ possessions, and yet I assume Russians were considered civilized. I also didn’t realize you had to be illiterate to hunt and fish.
I haven’t read the book front-to-back, but continue to see slightly-off statements such as Many strange plants and curious animals are found in Australia and then describes plants with sideways leaves and kangaroos. Or how about The natives are black savages; they are very degraded and are fast disappearing. You wonder if these “facts” contributed to the systematic destruction of Aboriginal people and culture in Australia.
I find it hard to discount the damage caused by “educational” material such as this textbook. A need was identified, a book was written, and perhaps the authors pulled together whatever they had from people who perhaps had made long trips to faraway places. Perhaps stereotypes and misstatements were viewed as trivial or not impactful because only the rich could afford Grand Tours of Europe. However, after reading Lies, it appears it’s just the beginning of the white, male, Christian, Euro- and American-centric biases Loewen wrote about.
AI models apparently realize that these definitions are based on historical perspective, but some would find it tempting to incorporate this definitions into arguments supporting their current views. And that I find scary….
