This is an interesting book. The author, who wrote at least a few titles on education, sifted through state laws and other primary materials, to catalog the public policy objectives for public secondary schools. Among the interesting findings are: 10 states had schools to “inculcate honesty,” 9 states sought to teach the young to “cherish science,” and 25 sought to train pupils in morality.

Patty’s conducted his research after a flurry of state activity to make secondary schooling a norm for most if not all students. His book, then, is an empirical investigation to grasp what was going on and why.

This book is not easy to find. In the late 1990s, I got a copy from New York University’s Bobst library. To my delight, it still is there! There are other research libraries that have this volume. Seeing as the book is nearly a century old and highly unlikely to be under copyright, I wish someone would digitize it and put it online. (My PDF, alas, has only a handful of the opening pages.)