[daniel1212]

This accorded with the Protestant ethic that people must be able to read their Bibles. Americans typically attained solid, basic literacy in a mere 40 hours of phonics, and practical numeracy in only 42 hours of arithmetic study (my grandfather, William Penny Keevers, a grocer, could add a running 3 column total in his head without a mechanical calculator), after which 13 year olds were expected to be pursuing self-employment and could enlarge their own education with such limited resources as were available to them, largely the Bible, Shakespeare and Plutarch’s Lives–not a bad foundation.

Thanks for the tome, which I will later have to digest!

[Verginius Rufus]

Harry Truman never went to college, but he was fond of Plutarch, which may have benefited him when he became President. He also read Thucydides.

At Lincoln's birthplace they have the Bible on display he read from as a youth. It may have been the only book his family owned. It probably helped him develop his excellent command of the language.