How Lincoln Learned to Read: Twelve Great Americans and the Educations That Made Them [Hardcover]

Daniel Wolff (Author)

Book Description

Release date: March 17, 2009

An engaging, provocative history of American ideas, told through the educations (both in and out of school) of twelve great figures, from Benjamin Franklin to Elvis Presley.

How Lincoln Learned to Read tells the American story from a fresh and unique perspective: how do we learn what we need to know? Beginning with Benjamin Franklin and ending with Elvis Presley, author Daniel Wolff creates a series of intimate, interlocking profiles of notable Americans that track the nation’s developing notion of what it means to get a “good education.” From the stubborn early feminism of Abigail Adams to the miracle of Helen Keller, from the savage childhood of Andrew Jackson to the academic ambitions of W.E.B. Du Bois, a single, fascinating narrative emerges. It connects the illiterate Sojourner Truth to the privileged Jack Kennedy, takes us from Paiute Indians scavenging on western deserts to the birth of Henry Ford’s assembly line. And as the book traces the education we value – both in and outside the classroom – it becomes a history of key American ideas.

In the end, How Lincoln Learned to Read delivers us to today’s headlines. Standardized testing, achievement gaps, the very purpose of public education – all have their roots in this narrative. Whether you’re a parent trying to make sure your child is prepared, a teacher trying to do the best possible job, or a student navigating the educational system, How Lincoln Learned to Read offers a challenge to consider what we need to know and how we learn it. Wide-ranging and meticulously researched, built mostly on primary sources, this is an American story that begins and ends with hope.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School—Wolff allows that several factors are involved in achieving greatness, but his focus here is on the role of childhood education (roughly toddler to teen) in the success of 12 notable Americans, discussed chronologically from Benjamin Franklin to Elvis Presley. He examines the education, both in school and out, of Abigail Adams, Andrew Jackson, Sojourner Truth, Sarah Winnemucca, Henry Ford, W. E. B. Du Bois, Helen Keller, Rachel Carson, and John F. Kennedy. Employing a lively narrative style and impressive research, Wolff presents the interlocking stories that together form a brief history of what it means to be successful in this country. These individuals range from having no formal education to attending the best schools in the land, from having a reverence for book learning to having a reverence for tinkering, from facing enormous challenges to having specialized interests. But what they all hold in common is that they managed to learn what they needed to know, often against tremendous odds. All were consistently true to themselves and to their deepest interests. And from that starting point they pursued the particular education that best suited their needs. This provocative book is not only an important addition to the history of education in America, but also a valuable contribution to the history and understanding of the country's ideas and culture. It should appeal especially to those teens who wonder where their particular education might lead.—Robert Saunderson, formerly at Berkeley Public Library, CA
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From Booklist

Eclectic author and journalist Wolff looks at the training, formal or otherwise, of 12 unique Americans in an effort to identify aspects of a “good education.” From Abe Lincoln’s obsession with books and newspapers to Elvis’ fascination with movies and their soundtracks, Wolff ties these varied biographies together with common historical threads, discerning how each was able to surmount difficulties and make his or her mark. We learn that Ben Franklin “finds his refuge in books” as a child and that Abigail Adams “entered the adult world through the library.” W. E. B. DuBois was fortunate to be born in Massachusetts, where education was mandatory for 6- to 12-year-olds, black or white. Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, a Paiute Indian, opened her own Indian school, striving to keep the traditional ways alive in the face of white-run schools trying to exterminate Indian traditions. Enriched by historical details of the Civil War and world wars, the Great Depression, and the rise of unions, and backed by extensive primary sources, Wolff’s essays provide enlightening glimpses into the often-serendipitous process of education. --Deborah Donovan

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA; First edition (March 17, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596912901
• ISBN-13: 978-1596912908
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #525,834 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A great read and a remarkable achievement April 12, 2009

By Dan Denerstein

Format:Hardcover

In his 1995 book, You Send Me: The Life And Times Of Sam Cooke, stunning as it was for a first work, author Daniel Wolff displayed a rare gift for examining the environment, the black Pentecostal church and Chicago's South Side gospel music atmosphere, that spawned the explosive talent and cultural icon that he became in his all-too-brief life and career. Wolff's penchant and interest in the factors that allow someone to become a transcendant historical figure presaged his latest work, How Lincoln Learned To Read.
In thought provoking, show-don't-tell style, Wolff recounts the formative years of twelve prominent Americans. Presented chronologically, he begins with eight-year-old Ben Franklin and his passage from distracted, rebellious youngster to apprentice printer. We see how he positions himself to spend his life as writer/publisher/inventor/political thinker, America's greatest intellectual jack-of-all-trades. Wolff ends with the youthful journey of Elvis Presley from dirt poor toddler in a family of tenant farmers and unskilled laborers to a teenager taking advantage of the mélange of musical streams found only in post-war Memphis. The reader meets ten others introduced by their childhood names. (Wait till you see who Nabby, Belle, Thocmetony and Willie turn out to be.) Brief biographical chapters describe the mix of environment, personal circumstance, available formal education, instinct and inner drive that combine to solidify purpose and character. Transformative incidents and situations (Andy Jackson's Revolutionary War battle experience, Helen Keller's w-a-t-e-r moment, and young Rachel Carson's solitary nature sojourns in Western Pennsylvania) are vivid and wonderfully drawn. Along the way, the reader is introduced to the learning tools that would periodically dominate the educational landscape: the New England Primer, Noah Webster's grammar book, the McGuffey Eclectic Reader, and St. Nicholas literary magazine.
Readable, entertaining, with original research that could fill ten books, Daniel Wolff offers a portrait of how these Americans educated themselves, how they overcame and bypassed economic, social and cultural obstacles and how from an early age they followed a path that only they could see. It is an important book that historians, politicians, educators and parents everywhere should read.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Good history of education May 27, 2009

By dudley

Format:Hardcover

This is an important book, not because of insights about what is educationally helpful and what is not, as it proposes to do. The two educational points I thought it made were that the U.S. educational system has gotten better and better at offering opportunty to all, and the importance of intrinsic motivation.

The educational system doesn't seem to get a lot of credit for the fact that it leads the world in providing an opportunity for education to almost all of its citizens. When you think of its exclusiveness in its early days, and which remains today in many countries, that is a worthy accomplishment.

Second, and more importantly, the 12 famous individuals profiled in the book were very diverse, yet all had in common strong motivation. That may be the biggest weakness in schools today. Even though self-reliance is a widely popular mantra, most criticism of education seems more focused on the schools than on the students. Poor effort is surely a major cause of poor performance. Students shouldn't be so passive. The 12 individuals in the book did not achieve success by waiting for someone to motivate them. Most of them had many struggles to overcome.

The book could stand alone as good history, regardless of its relevance to education. It even shed new light on commonly known facts by the way it told them. I knew the story of JFK and the wealth of his family, but the book really made clear how different is the life of the rich from most of the rest of us. It has implications for choosing leaders. Are they too isolated from the problems most of us cope with?

Also, the story of Elvis made clear the "vicious cycle" of the economic life in the South for many working class people.

This book is interesting to read and makes history come alive. A good companion to this book is one called Amusing Ourselves to Death.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good stories but lacking something July 28, 2009

By H, D, and A's Momma

Format:Hardcover

I enjoyed this book, but it was not what I would call gripping. The reasons for this are several. The book includes a prologue that asks some rhetorical questions and the briefest of epilogues that attempts to tie it all together, but in between are twelve separate stories that are not really related in any way other than being about the early education of their subjects. The author attempts to keep somewhat of a narrative thread going by mentioning previously discussed people throughout the book, but in the end the book lacks a sense of how the stories he tells relate to one another or have an overarching message. Each story is interesting on its own right, but (and this brings me to another reason that the book was not gripping) each chapter ends rather abruptly at the close of the subject's "high school" education (however loosely that is defined), and there is nothing said about how this person's education affected the rest of their life. The book continually set the stage for something, only to fail to bring it to fruition.

Anyway, these criticisms aside, the book was interesting. I enjoyed learning about the progression of educational ideas and methods throughout the history of America, and the book offered a peek into often little-known time periods of historical figures' lives. I learned about this book on homeschool forum, and I would definitely recommend this book to others who are interested in history and educational theory.