Even moreso here in the States, where we have less of a pre-1900 literary history. When public schools were becoming more common late in the 19th century in Am

Even moreso here in the States, where we have less of a pre-1900 literary history. When public schools were becoming more common late in the 19th century in America, schoolteachers needed material. They wanted to highlight American authors. As we didn't have many, they stretched their selections to include books that might not be as high quality as if we made the list nowadays. (Indeed, most good American literature was produced after 1900 -- Hemingway through Thompson through Wallace). Now we teach Hawthorne and mediocre literature because they were part of the American canon. However, they were included because we didn't have a lot of other options.