In the late 1810s, Harvard College sought to reform and modernize its curricula
which had failed to keep up with the developing needs of scholars and scientists. To achieve this, Professor John Farrar broke with traditional educational practices informed by English and Scottish contents, pedagogical methods and media of diffusion and sought inspiration from French textbooks and pedagogical methods.

For the teaching of geometry, he translated Legendre’s Éléments de géométrie, an inbetween textbook which broke with the inductive methods of Clairaut but also with traditional Euclidian textbooks such as Scottish Elements of Geometry by John Playfair. However, the introduction of these new practices represented a rupture in learning methods. To minimize this change, American mathematicians who adapted Legendre after Farrar adapted it, deeply altered the French textbook and made it more relevant to local uses. These transformations brought about new and original knowledge – a result of the combination of specific pedagogical needs and tendencies of American textbooks publishing.