CHAPTER ONE: Textbooks as Products--The Business Era.

Chapter One of the book "Twentieth-Century Textbook Wars: A History of Advocacy and Opposition" is presented. It explores the profitability of textbook publishing in the nineteenth century that was associated to the size of the market, which expanded after reformers argued that public education could attain its full potential only if students were assured free textbooks. These profits resulted to the potential conflict of interest which convinced some critics that publishers had abandoned the pedagogical objectives for learning materials.