Between the late 1830s and the 1870s the various disciplines that make up the social sciences began to develop as a distinct field in the United States. One of the most important reasons for this development was the growing influence of science in general in America as increasing industrialization and advances in transportation and communication demanded more specialized knowledge. Colleges and universities responded to this demand by adding scientific and technical training to the literary and theological studies on which they had concentrated previously. Educational leaders, many of whom had studied in Europe, based their reforms on European educational advances.

History.

As in Europe—especially in Germany—the field of history went through important changes in the middle decades of the century. History began to be taught as a distinct discipline in the pre-Civil War years, and Jared Sparks, Thomas R. Dew, and...