The German Social Democratic Party, the most influential socialist party in Europe and the largest single political movement in Germany on the eve of World War I, was a major force promoting educational reform in the Wilhelmian period. The party's reform activities centered on the Volksschule, the common elementary school maintained by the German states to inculcate piety, patriotism, and the work ethic in the children of factory workers, artisans, peasants, and small tradesmen. Traditionally the German working-class movement demanded state support for a secularized and expanded school program. Through the 1890's, the Social Democrats perpetuated this demand. As the twentieth century opened, the party's radical faction, committed to class struggle and revolution, articulated a new position. The radicals suggested specific curricular reforms to instill values compatible with the tenets of socialism. Moreover, they specified ways in which the party might achieve a greater voice in school affairs. Lastly, they promoted educational alternatives to the Volksschule: socialist training in the home, a youth movement, and adult education. The purpose of the radical program was to prepare the child to participate in the class struggle. By broadening the Social Democrats' traditional position on school reform, the radicals made education part of a comprehensive program for political action.

An important new educational institution was created in America in the early nineteenth century—the theological seminary. The development of seminaries, although almost completely ignored by twentieth-century educational historians, was an important achievement with far-reaching consequences for religion, education, and society. Education for the ministry became formally organized, systematized, and extended in the specialized theological seminaries which substantially improved professional preparation. Within a generation of the founding of Andover in 1807, the theological seminary became the accepted pattern of professional training for the educated and learned ministry in Protestant churches. Alumni of seminaries and divinity schools not only preached the gospel, but also extended education throughout the land by establishing and supporting literally thousands of educational agencies and institutions: colleges and seminaries, academies and common schools, churches and Sunday schools, libraries and the religious press, and benevolent and reform societies.

The society for the Promotion of Collegiate and Theological Education at the West was established in 1843 as one response of evangelical Protestants to the challenge of westward migration and the need to create a new society in the vast hinterland of America. Although the work of the Society has been known to students of nineteenth century American culture, the recent availability of the organization's letter files encourages a thorough re-examination of the SPCTEW's activities. The results fall roughly into a two-part sequence: first an analysis of the special set of religious attitudes and assumptions which motivated the Society and shaped its activities, and second, a description of the development and eventual decline of the organization itself, including discussion of some of the key events and forces which determined that development. Hopefully these twin concerns properly delineated will provide a better understanding of the significance of the SPCTEW in nineteenth century American religious and educational history.