Edward Bok

Mm-hmm.

Edward W. Bok.

Yep.

Dutch immigrant.

Um, uh, and so, um, y- so there's that kind of language.

But if, if I may, uh, I think I can capture the, uh, in a sense the excitement but also the anger and, and, uh, the, the, the, the, the power behind the position, the anti-homework position and its roots in this progressive education movement if I read from you what is arguably the, the, the first really important document on the subject, uh, penned by a man named Edward Bok, who was editor of the Ladies Home Journal, which was at the turn of the century, one of the most, if not the most popular of journals aimed at, uh, upper middle class and upper class, uh, women, and that regularly addressed, though, a variety of political topics, and education was one of its main concerns.

So let me see if I can quickly locate for you this, uh, quotation that I want to read.

Here we go.

Um, and the Britannica article writes, "The field of women's magazines was finally transformed, however, by Cyrus Curtis with his Ladies' Home Journal, founded 1883, edited by his wife, Louisa Knapp Curtis.

This soon reached a circulation of 400,000 and under the editorship of Edward W. Bok from 1889, broke with sentimentality and piety to become a stimulating journal of real service to women."

So the history of this magazine is pretty fascinating.

We have stories of editors, men, uh, writing op-eds to oppose the women's suffrage movement, saying things like, quote, "a vision of the women at home living the simple life" and, um, and having many more saying that women are enemies to themselves.