Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    How Lincoln Learned to Read: Twelve Great Americans and the Educations That Made Them
    Unavailable
    How Lincoln Learned to Read: Twelve Great Americans and the Educations That Made Them
    Unavailable
    How Lincoln Learned to Read: Twelve Great Americans and the Educations That Made Them
    Ebook463 pages10 hours

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

    By Daniel Wolff

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury USA
    Release dateJul 1, 2009
    ISBN9781608191222
    Unavailable
    How Lincoln Learned to Read: Twelve Great Americans and the Educations That Made Them
    Author

    Daniel Wolff

    Daniel Wolff is the author of The Fight for Home; How Lincoln Learned to Read; 4th of July/Asbury Park; and You Send Me: The Life and Times of Sam Cooke, which won the Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Award. He’s been nominated for a Grammy, published three collections of poetry, and collaborated with, among others, songwriters, documentary filmmakers, photographers, and choreographer Marta Renzi, his wife.

    Read more from Daniel Wolff

    Related to How Lincoln Learned to Read

    Related ebooks

    United States History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Black History Month: These Writers’ Messages Still Ring True

      Feb 4, 2022

      I have kept two books from my college years. One is about points, picas, and figuring out proportions. Little did I know that the copyfitting skills it covered were becoming obsolete at the very moment I was poring over that paperback. Graphic design

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Farooq Ahmed

      Dec 16, 2020

      When I was young my parents enrolled me in a speed-reading course, which was held in what felt like the basement of a used bookstore on a former main street in a town just west of Kansas City. The post A Year in Reading: Farooq Ahmed appeared first o

      5 min read

    • Article

      Why We Write

      Feb 7, 2018

      STEPHANIE STOKES OLIVER has spent her career in magazine and book publishing. Formerly the fashion and beauty merchandising editor at Glamour, founding editor in chief of Heart & Soul, and editor in chief of Essence.com, she most recently served as v

      7 min read

    • Article

      Why We Write

      Feb 14, 2018

      STEPHANIE STOKES OLIVER has spent her career in magazine and book publishing. Formerly the fashion and beauty merchandising editor at Glamour, founding editor in chief of Heart & Soul, and editor in chief of Essence.com, she most recently served as v

      7 min read

    • Article

      The Art of Nonfiction No. 11

      Dec 7, 2021

      The Art of Nonfiction No. 11
      26 min read

    • Article

      The Art of Fiction No. 242

      Dec 15, 2018

      The Art of Fiction No. 242
      28 min read

    • Article

      ‘Call yourself English?’

      Aug 21, 2019

      ‘Call yourself English?’
      19 min read

    • Article

      Fighting to Write Between Two Languages

      Apr 4, 2018

      1. Growing up, I developed my Spanish as a form of discipline. Spanish belonged at home, and English belonged at school. Only when my sister and I spoke did our bilingual conversation find itself walking in trepidation across the bridge we had built

      7 min read

    • Article

      Year in Reading: Emily St. John Mandel

      Dec 23, 2018

      It’s the possibility of unexpected connections between narratives that fascinated me and kept me in love with reading over time. The post Year in Reading: Emily St. John Mandel appeared first on The Millions.

      6 min read

    • Article

      The California Gaze

      Apr 1, 2023

      The California Gaze
      7 min read

    • Article

      Trapped Between Two Worlds: The Life of John Morris

      Apr 4, 2022

      There is a (now lost) picture of me as an infant in 1952 on my grandfather’s knee, when he was about to turn 90. Even as a teenager, I was thinking, wow, the life this guy lived. The things he lived through and witnessed, and the way his day-to-day l

      11 min read

    • Article

      ‘We Didn’t Need Money. We Needed Paper Cranes.’

      Sep 28, 2021

      After 9/11, the kids from a school near Ground Zero were briefly, weirdly, famous for their proximity to tragedy. What has this anniversary season meant to them?

      11 min read

    • Article

      Writing Your Memoir

      Feb 15, 2021

      Writing Your Memoir
      8 min read

    • Article

      5 STEPS to 160,000

      Feb 15, 2022

      5 STEPS to 160,000
      10 min read

    Reviews for How Lincoln Learned to Read

    3.5/5

    40 ratings16 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 2/5
      Well, more skimmed than read. This book could be subtitled "How the Very Poor Became Rich and Famous". I might have liked it better if Wolff hadn't started every story at least two, more often three, generations back from the person being highlighted.

      I read all of Ben Franklin, most of Abigail Adams, Sojourner Truth and Elvis Presley. Skimmed the others or skipped them entirely.

      Wasn't may favorite but might catch the attention of someone else.
    • 4/5
      At the outset of "How Lincoln Learned to Read," Daniel Wolff offers a straightforward question: "How do we learn what we need to know?" To answer, he considers the varied educations of twelve loosely-connected Americans, from the titular Abraham Lincoln (not a bad way to attract attention to your book) to Elvis Presley (who was not really known for his schooling). In each case, the preparation for life that each received during adolescence had lasting impacts.The dozen individuals selected, who include three presidents along with famous writers, intellectuals, and scientists, have notable achievements. By simply focusing on their education and formation, Wolff demonstrates that there are a variety of ways to be intellectually prepared for leadership and influence. Some, like Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin, had little formal education, but were clearly self-starters who indefatigably took advantage of any opportunity they could find to learn and grow. Others were intellectuals whose schooling nurtured them, but whose lives were somewhat dictated by the cultural expectations of their times, like Abigail Adams, Sarah Winnemucca, and W.E.B. Du Bois.Throughout, the high value that Americans have historically given education -- in its many forms -- is critically examined and disturbing undercurrents emerge. Not surprisingly, children of the wealthy have tended to have more educational opportunities, including multiple chances to take such opportunities seriously, as is demonstrated by the lackluster approach John Kennedy took toward school for many years. Those more disadvantaged, including women and minorities, could sometimes pursue higher education, but only if they demonstrated special gifts and had sponsors -- parents, influential benefactors -- who could help open doors for them.Perhaps the most interesting, and disturbing, consideration of formal education is the chapter on Helen Keller. The story of a blind and deaf girl learning to communicate has long been inspiring, even becoming an acclaimed movie, but in Wolff's description, it also should be characterized by one of incredible coincidences and even exploitation of Keller by the complex system of wealthy contributors and specialized schools that provide Keller's teachers and educational opportunities.While Wolff makes numerous explicit and implicit connections between the formative educations and subsequent lives of these twelve Americans, he is not overly dogmatic. Instead, this patchwork quilt suggests a broad appreciation for the many ways in which children learn the essential lessons for their lives -- how they learn to think, to communicate, to relate with others, to pick and pursue a career. It offers both encouragement to those who would heavily structure a child's formal education and discouragement of the same. It shows that some children will become successful if they have independence in how they learn as children, but it also provides examples of some who needed fairly forceful guidance to achieve their potential. Instead of providing a careful "how-to" approach for education, there is a certain amount of wonder in the process of education itself. This appreciation, coupled with Wolff's light-handed and pleasant narrative style, makes the book an enjoyable and thought-provoking read.
    • 4/5
      This is a series of interesting vignettes on 12 very different Americans and how their education shaped their lives. Daniel Wolff creates these mini biographies of one chapter per person, but cleverly links them together when appropriate. He uses an interesting technique in not revealing who is who at the beginning of the chapter, sometimes waiting until the very last paragraphs. As much as this is about individuals, it is also an essay on the history of education in general in America. Wolff begins with Ben Franklin and shares how the young upstart tries the traditional route for education but ends up making his own way. He entered Boston Latin School and if he’d followed the traditional plan would end up at Harvard. But, Ben was not a traditional scholar. His story of self-education is a familiar one told of a number of those featured in the book. Abe Lincoln was a voracious reader, who was called “lazy” because he preferred to read, rather than farm. Abigail Smith Adams fought for her right to be educated in the classics and relished her education in literature, taking great delight in sharing literary discussions with friends. One of the few featured who enjoyed a private education was Jack Kennedy, and Wolff shares the tales of Kennedy’s antics at Choate, where he didn’t seem to take his education seriously in any way. The book concludes with a look at Elvis’ education as a poor white in Mississippi and Tennessee and how he took advantage of the public education offered to him.This book will be of interest to teachers who want to take a look at the history of education in America, as well as those interested in learning more about these 12 individuals.-LMW
    • 3/5
      This book has an interesting premise: throughout our history, Americans have learned "what they need to know" via formal education and in other, more informal and more personal ways. The author takes a look at 12 Americans--from Benjamin Franklin and Abigail Adams to JFK and Elvis Presley--and examines how they learned what they needed to know. Most of these were famous Americans but some, not so famous.Sounds good, doesn't it? Well, in execution, it's not as great as I'd expected, leaving me feeling somewhat disappointed with this slow-moving book. The "educational biographies" are uneven and, at times, tended to ramble. The chapters on Belle, a black woman slave who was later known as Sojourner Truth, and on Thocmetony, an Indian woman who was the daughter of Winnemucca, were my favorites, I'd say.It's not a bad book if you've got the patience to read through some slow parts or maybe skip them altogether. Overall, I feel somewhat neutral about this book. Interesting premise and some fascinating parts but I'm not sure it's worth the effort.
    • 3/5
      It was interesting to read each of the biographies, I'll say that. Taken as a whole, though, it is clear that the author has an agenda. The string that goes through each story, tying them together, is the idea that organized educational institutions are harmful instead of helpful in teaching young people. Which, is a country that rewards ignorance and stupidity, and continues to deprioritize and underfund public education, is irresponsible at best. It's really great that Lincoln, Ben Franklin, Sojourner Truth, et al were able to educate themselves in the ways they did. And it's really great that some young people continue to be able to seek out and find the education thy need and want of their own accord. However, these people are the exceptions, not the rule, and the educational philosophy this book promotes can not work on a grand scale. Maybe someone should write a companion book called How Everyone Else Learned to Read.
    • 2/5
      This book took me quite a bit longer than I would have expected, and for the longest time I couldn't put my finger on why I just wasn't enjoying it as much as expected. Upon first reading the description of this book, I assumed it would be a study in education by means of 12 important figures(without odd childhood nicknames to "keep me guessing?" I might add also!). Instead, what we have are tiny biographies of the 12 individuals that are oddly specific in some cases and quite vague in other's.Instead of having a steady stream of tracking the progress(or potentially lack thereof) that would tie these individuals together we have a chapter on each where the other's seem to be stretched to compare/contrast to the other's. Overall while some of it was interesting I wish he would either have focused on a third of the people or really sought out to study education throughout the years. Either way, he did not do justice as a biographer of the 12 and as a historian or educator on education. It really is a shame because I had very high hopes for this.
    • 3/5
      I sat one evening in the home of a television mega-star with three other women and a Nobel prize-winning author as the honored guest. The conversation had just erupted into peals of laughter as we all agreed on a point of discussion, and as the volume subsided, the hostess turned to me and said, “…We all knew that ‘cause we all graduated from college, right?” I couldn’t respond in the affirmative like the other women at the table, and suddenly felt excluded and different from these women whom, just seconds before, I was certain were my mental equals. I feel equal to the formally-educated women I was sharing dinner with that winter evening. “How Lincoln Learned to Read: Twelve Great Americans and the Education that Made Them,” by Daniel Wolff reminds me that education is so much more than the college attended, and tells the stories of American notables as examples of this idea. Their early schooling was gathered in the chapters of this book in an effort to study the correlation between education and success. Wolff could have chosen any number of individuals, but chose this select dozen for the individual lessons they demonstrate as their education progressed. Ben Franklin’s story showed how education can be gained even with a series of stops and starts, and could include abrupt changes in direction. Belle’s chapter reveals that education can be gained in spite of race, social status, economic position or gender. You will read of the conflict education brought to Thocmetony’s life, and you’ll think a lot about the quest for knowledge, the importance of commitment, and the early involvement of religion, patriotism and moral character in early-American education. Once you’ve come to that conclusion, the story of Abe Lincoln will shake loose questions of whether private or public education is the answer. Henry Ford’s educational philosophy will be a question you will ponder; whether all men seek educational challenges or if a majority of mankind prefers not to think. I enjoyed reading this book, and encourage you to read about the other seven men and women not mentioned here. Their stories, like your own personal road to learning-what-you-needed-to-know, are the foundation on the level of success these Americans attained. I’ve often wondered did anyone hear my heart skip a beat at the moment I was asked if I were among the college educated. I’m going to be more responsive the next time I’m asked. After all, we were all sitting at the same table, weren’t we?
    • 3/5
      Daniel Wolff in his book, How Lincoln Learned to Read: Twelve Great Americans and the educations that made them tries to examine how education developed in America. He does by looking at the early lives of a dozen famous Americans in the context of the times they lived in. He makes use of their own words, gleaned from their writings. It is an intriguing subject and an interesting approach to the subject. Don’t we all recall our schooldays? The push for an educated electorate is as old as the Republic. Jefferson wrote about the importance of having educated voters electing our government. A century later John Dewy was making the same argument. The idea promises to be interesting, unfortunately Wolff’s book falls short of that promise. My first concern with Wolff’s book was how he chose to address his subjects. He uses diminutive forms of their proper names, some more diminutive than others. In Wolff’s defense he is looking at these icons as children so I cannot object to ‘Ben ‘ for Benjamin Franklin and ‘Andy’ for Andrew Jackson. However, I feel that using ‘Nabby’ for Abigail Adams and ‘Willie’ for W. E. B. DuBois cross’ the line into dismissiveness. Maybe Abigail’s family did call her by that name but we, and he, are not her family. I have to wonder why ‘Willie’ but not ‘Benny’? I don’t recall DuBois referring to himself as ‘Willie’ in The Souls of Black Folk.Does a history of education really need speculation about parent’s illegal activities and people’s sexual preferences? Editing out such irrelevant speculation would have improved the books credibility. There is a lot of genealogical information in the book that is not irrelevant to the person’s education, information that contradicts the ‘rag to riches’ myths that surround several of its subjects. Mythology is one theme in the book, principally the American myth of the ‘self-made man’. Why bother naming Lincoln’s early teachers if they are not intended to receive any credit for his education? Why mention Ford’s love of McGuffy readers if you are claiming his education came from tinkering in the barn? Jackson and Lincoln both worked as lawyers but no mention is made of any legal education of the fact that they might not have needed any. The book takes a dismissive stand on the value of formal education. Jackson and Lincoln, the lawyers, got their principle education from fighting in the Revolution and splitting logs according to Wolff. Kennedy attended some of the nations most expensive private schools in the country but we are told that administrators felt that who they met and conforming to expectations were more important than what students learned. I don’t want to be completely negative about the book. Wolff writes clearly and maintains a very interesting narrative. “Abe Lincoln was shot and killed by Indians”, the first paragraph of the chapter on Lincoln is one example of how compelling his writing can be. He also manages to discuss some of the milestones in American education, the beginning of high schools, and the early justification that educating the poor would teach them to behave and take orders. Wolff points out that Dewey’s belief (and Jefferson’s although he is not mentioned) that Americans should be educated to be good citizens, to be involved and knowledgeable about government and to able to thoughtfully vote, was a controversial idea but he fails to examine why it was controversial. What was the argument an informed electorate? As a history of American education Wolff’s book is flawed. Unfortunately it is the best one that I know of and the topic is interesting so I have to, half-heartedly, recommend the book.
    • 4/5
      Arranged as vignettes focusing on twelve children - just Ben, Abe, Henry, Helen, you know, kids. Not only does this give a unique view into twelve periods in American history, it takes us into the lives of twelve significant Americans and the childhoods that shaped them. As a parent - particularly one who has homeschooled - I was fascinated by the interplay of educational objectives and religious beliefs compounded with family dynamics. This is solid - and fun* - history reading for both parents and young people. *Packed with interesting details, this book was endlessly amusing. For example, I never expected to find out that Elvis had volunteered in his high school library!
    • 3/5
      I’d like to say I had a “love/hate” relationship with this book, but it was more like a “hate/let me sleep on it and we’ll see how we feel in the morning” relationship. The premise behind this book was a strong one – immediately upon seeing it, I knew I wanted to read it. Unfortunately, it completely failed to live up to my expectations, and for that reason I probably feel a stronger sense of disappointment. Each chapter is dedicated to a “significant” individual from American history, focusing primarily on their childhoods as opposed to their accomplishments, the author extrapolates these early events into how they developed their characters as becoming adults. Some of the stories were interesting and well researched; however, many relied too heavily on generalizations from the era as opposed to specific examples, and the correlations between the events and their impacts later in life, were often questionable.It’s also possible that a couple of the author’s writing techniques interfered with my ability to enjoy the book. The first, although minor, proved annoying – the reference of each individual by their “childhood” names. If the idea was to be “mysterious”, the trick didn’t work – many of the chapters included a last name in the first paragraph, and how many children named “Elvis” do you know? If it were designed to be “cute”…it didn’t work. The second technique I blame on his editor – since the book was technically about their “early educations”, each chapter is peppered with references such as: “we’ll consider that his elementary education”, “these were her ‘high school years’”, etc. Again, if it were designed to be “cute”, it served only to annoy. But as a whole, there was enough of interest to keep me going, and some of the chapters – particularly “Helen” were extremely well written and compensated for myriad ills. Of interest more to history buffs than educators, this book will make for an interesting skim.
    • 4/5
      How Lincoln Learned to Read is a book about the education of twelve famous Americans. However, Wolff’s idea of education is broader then teachers and schoolrooms. He gives examples of a broad category of how people are educated through their own initiative, interests, and work. While interesting and well written, I would have to ask, so what? There is no real purpose to this book. Unless you want to guess at its purpose. It seems that Wolff’s thesis is that education happen in more places then the classroom.Alright, if that is his thesis, then has anything new been told to us? I would say no. Is he saying that education should be similar to the way these people were educated? Who knows, since the books is just a series of episodes, mostly about the early childhood of his subjects. Is this a study about what makes a person “great?” Who knows, since greatness is also in the eye of the beholder. Is it about reforming the education system? Who knows, since there are no constructive proposals put forward. Essentially you can take out of this book, what you want to take out of it.Therefore, if one is looking about the childhood experience of a variety of different Americans, than this book is one to pick up. It was an interesting book from a historical perspective. But as to contributing something new, there is not much here. But, if you are interested in the historical part, I would pick it up.
    • 3/5
      What I enjoyed most about this book was how broadly it approached and defined education. This is not a book about school, although school plays a role, but a book that tries to discover what about our early experiences makes us into the people we become. Wolff does a thorough job of scouring primary documents to draw inferences on what growing up taught these twelve great Americans. His conclusions should give educators pause about the actual impact of their work as Wolff seems to argue that more often than not traditional education was not all that useful for these American archetypes. If there is a weakness to the book, it would be that it takes on and uses the traditional American narratives (self made man, perserverance=success) without too much critical reflection the veracity of those claims. Sometimes it read a little like a patriotic primer than a complex exposition on childhood. It is worth the read for any American history fan, but I was left wondering about the generalizability of the text. Are there lessons to be learned from great Americans or are their achievements and personalities outliers which hold little explanation for modern life?
    • 4/5
      I was a pleasantly surprised by Daniel Wolff’s "How Lincoln Learned to Read." Although the subtitle, “Twelve Great Americans and the Educations that Made Them,” is an accurate description of what the book is about, this book is much more than just a mini biography of these figures. Through the stories of these 12 individuals, the book also provides an overview of the American education system in general.Wolff makes some interesting and thoughtful decisions in terms of the individuals he selects and the way that he goes about describing their educations. Some of these choices seemed perplexing at first, but they made a great deal of sense as I continued to read. For instance, the subjects are referred to by their childhood names or nicknames, which helped me focus on the information provided in the book, rather than the history that surrounds the subjects. Another, more significant, choice that Wolff makes is that he is careful to explore both the formal and informal educations of these individuals. One of my initial fears was that the book would focus just on formal schooling or on the individuals’ education through experiences. To his credit, Wolff does a good job looking at both types of education and discussing their contributions. What's more, he subtly addresses America's sometimes dysfunctional relationship with education. A clear example of this is in the chapter on Lincoln. Wolff shows Lincoln's love of learning and books, but he also describes Lincoln's decision to portray himself as "an unschooled rail-splitter" in order to distance himself from the perceptions of elitism that came with formal education.All in all, if you are interested in education or American history (or both), you would enjoy "How Lincoln Learned to Read." Not only is it thoroughly researched, but Wolff’s writing is engaging and his treatment of the subject is very thoughtful and provides a fresh perspective on these well-known figures and on education.
    • 3/5
      Honestly, I'm not quite sure how I ended up receiving this to review, but I enjoyed the chunk of it I read. Wolff does an excellent job of pulling the reader into the person's life and giving them a sense of how their education, formal and informal affected them and made them the person they are. I won't give away any names except to say many will be widely recognizable, but others are less well known.
    • 4/5
      I read this book start to finish in one afternoon. Couldn’t stop reading. It’s all about twelve famous Americans’ educations, both formal and informal, and how they acquired what they needed to know to become the people they became. I won’t give away who the people are as that is part of the fun; each chapter is titled with a little-known nickname of the person so you aren’t always sure who the story is about until you get to the last page. It gives one a lot of hope to see how little formal education most of these people obtained in light of the amazing successes they achieved.A fun trip through American history.
    • 4/5
      A casual tone and well researched chapters lead readers through the education of some of America's famous and not so famous faces of history. I was interested to read it, but did't expect it to be as engrossing as it was. My only annoyance was that although there are extensive citations, the reader must guess when they pop up in the text. Personally, I would have preferred footnotes, but I understand why the editors' treatment of the citations to make the book more approachable.