Note 3 — VIII. The Conquest of Culture in America
Reading edition
“The one dominant feature of this labour movement [1824-1836] was the almost fanatical insistence upon the paramount importance of education. In political platforms, in resolutions of public meetings, and in the labour press, the statement is repeated over and over, that the fundamental demand of labour is for an adequate system of education....
“To this movement, more than to any other single cause, if not more than to all other causes combined, is due the common school system of the United States.... When the movement died out in 1835 to 1837 ... Horace Mann was leading the ‘educational revival,’ and the common school was an established institution in nearly every state.”—A. M. Simons: “Social Forces in American History.”