Download or read book The Strength of a People written by Richard D. Brown and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thomas Jefferson's conviction that the health of the nation's democracy would depend on the existence of an informed citizenry has been a cornerstone of our political culture since the inception of the American republic. Even today's debates over education reform and the need to be competitive in a technologically advanced, global economy are rooted in the idea that the education of rising generations is crucial to the nation's future. In this book, Richard Brown traces the development of the ideal of an informed citizenry in the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries and assesses its continuing influence and changing meaning.