Finding the Words The Education of James O. Freedman / James O. Freedman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Freedman, James O.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Presidents.

College presidents.

College presidents--United States--Biography.

United States.

Dartmouth College.

Dartmouth College--Presidents--Biography.

Freedman, James O.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xx, 339 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Princeton : Princeton University Press, 2007.

Summary:

"James Freedman, the fifteenth president of Dartmouth College, began life in a struggling middle-class Jewish family in a provincial industrial New Hampshire town. By the time of his death from cancer in March 2006, he was one of the most celebrated educational leaders of his generation, perhaps of the twentieth century. Finding the Words is Freedman's account of the first twenty-seven years of this trajectory in a life made difficult by depression, but sustained throughout by a love of books and learning, a life that would transform the culture of American higher education." "His mother's fierce and bruising ambition instilled in him an overwhelming drive to leave his mark upon the world. His father, a revered high-school English teacher who was timid outside the classroom, introduced him to the rich world of literature - and also passed on to him his doubts and insecurities. Freedman retraces his intellectual formation as a student, educator, scholar, and leader, from his early obsession with book collecting through his undergraduate years at Harvard and his professional training at Yale Law School. This same passion for language and ideas defined Freedman's leadership at Dartmouth, where he deftly countered lingering anti-Semitism, fought entrenched interests to open the way for women and minorities, reformed and revitalized the curriculum, and boldly reconceived the school's campus." "This book depicts the formative years of a man nourished by lifelong learning, whose rise from humble beginnings to heights of achievement will serve as a model for generations to come."--Jacket.

Contents:

Prologue

Family

Manchester

Growing up

Central High School

A passion for collecting

The fifties

Harvard College

Teachers and teaching

Harvard Law School and the Union Leader

Yale Law School

Epilogue.

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780691229508

0691229503

OCLC:

1243547488