Does anyone have good sources of information on historical levels of "learnedness" in the United States? And it might be interesting to compare that measure to the number of years of formal education.
As to the specific question of self-education, for some reason I'm inclined to believe that post-civil war literacy among the former slaves skyrocketed, and this wasn't because of compulsory education. Maybe someone has an interesting source to confirm or falsify my vague recollections? Sounds like that would make a good book.
http://freakonomics.com/2011/09/01/were-colonial-americans-m...
As to the specific question of self-education, for some reason I'm inclined to believe that post-civil war literacy among the former slaves skyrocketed, and this wasn't because of compulsory education. Maybe someone has an interesting source to confirm or falsify my vague recollections? Sounds like that would make a good book.