Pulitzer Prize History Winner

American Education: The National Experience, 1783–1876

by Lawrence A. Cremin

Summary

Cremin charts how schooling, churches, families, newspapers, and other institutions educated Americans during the first century of the republic. He treats education broadly as the whole process by which a young nation transmitted values and built a common culture across a sprawling and diverse population. The volume forms the centerpiece of his ambitious three part history of American education.

Historical Context & Significance

This middle volume of Cremin's trilogy on American education won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1981.