The Verse Problems of Early American Arithmetics

Abstract

Allen explores Arithmetic books used in American schools before 1850 which stated the arithmetic problems in the form of verse.  For several generations of American schoolboys, the verse problem is seen to have been a part, admittedly a small part, of arithmetic and related studies. The verse problem varied, in its depth and complexity, from merely the casual and interesting, to the difficult, challenging, and decidedly unusual.