Why read Up From Slavery?

Book cover of Up From Slavery

Book description

Originally published in 1901, ‘Up From Slavery’ is an eloquently written book by Booker T. Washington, an American educator, author, speaker, and counselor to several presidents of the United States. Booker T. Washington was a prominent leader of the African-American community in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Washington…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Up From Slavery as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Thomas Bailey & Katherine Joslin

Author

Theodore Roosevelt read the book and loved his philosophy and way of telling a life story. Autobiography is at the heart of American literature. Washington, the founder of the Tuskegee Institute and Roosevelt’s contemporary in age and thinking, was the first writer the President invited to lunch at the White House, controversial as that invitation came to be. We love the book because, in this day of reconsidering Black history, the reader can see how Washington’s notion of self-reliance, captured in his famous admonition, “Cast down your bucket where you are,” helps to define the quest for economic and social…

From Thomas' list on The best books Theodore Roosevelt read in the White House, 1901 to 1908.