Between the Newspaper Archive and Alves & CIA Publishing House: the circulation of school textbooks in the 1890s

Abstract

This article analyzes the circulation of History textbooks used in Brazil between the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century, focusing on the curricular and editorial transformations that accompanied the consolidation of History as a school subject. Based on a survey of advertisements and reviews published in the Brazilian Digital Newspaper Archive and on the database organized by Cabrini (1994), the study examines the most widespread works of the period, their publishers, and the dissemination strategies employed within the school environment. It argues that these manuals played a fundamental role in consolidating a school historical repertoire linked to Republican educational projects. The study thus highlights how textbooks functioned not only as teaching tools, but also as instruments for the circulation and legitimation of specific historical knowledge, reflecting the tensions between modernization, the publishing market, and schooling in the late nineteenth century.