In this course, we will read late nineteenth-century children's literature, such as Louisa May Alcott's Little Women and Horatio Alger's Ragged Dick, and look at works that influenced them and works that were influenced by them. This course will seek to illuminate why late nineteenth-century children's literature have had a lasting impact on the later generations of Americans and were adapted to the construction of the American dream.

Studying children's literature is a window into the social issues of a period in history, the mores and values that authors used to entertain and educate their young readers / the future generations. Written after the Civil War, during the time of rapid change when immigrants, newly-freed slaves, and urban population increased dramatically, late nineteenth-century American children's literature attempted to define a unified national identity -- American Adams and Eves. Through the values books presented, late nineteenth-century children's literature also became the basis for the American dream.