It is commonly assumed that the textbook emerged as a well-defined genre in the nineteenth century. Paradoxically, defining the ‘textbook’ has proved much more difficult for historians. A simple definition is: a book specifically conceived for instructional purposes. However, the textbook has a much more complex ontology, owing to the multiplicity of actors, purposes, and functions intervening in its making, and the transformative power of its use. Textbooks are not immutable objects: their defining qualities have changed over time and are affected by the ways in which they are used.

Since the early modern period, certain texts or books had acquired in Europe the category of the standard in teaching and learning, but they were merely used as a complement to the oral lesson. It was in the nineteenth century that the use of standard books became central in pedagogical practice, leading to the configuration of the textbook as a genre. A major reason for the rise of the textbook was its instrumentality in the development of national structures of education, in particular, the nineteenth-century implementation of secondary education. These two phenomena coincided in time with the expansion of science teaching. In this chapter I suggest that the major forces behind the establishment of physics as a discipline were secondary and medical education, and school examinations.

Textbooks served the purposes of educationists and politicians in the establishment of science education in a national context. They served to articulate the pedagogical practice of physics teachers and the learning experience of physics students.