Educated with Dr. Andrew Israel Ross

Dr. Andrew Ross is Assistant Professor of History at Loyola University. He shared perspectives on "Educated" by Tara Westover on the Book Insights podcast. Here are some of his insights:

"As a historian, I'm really interested in the ways that the world constrains as much as it enables us to achieve."

"You can tell she's also an historian. She wasn't willing to hide the fact that her memory might not be correct. There's often multiple layers. She acknowledges this is one possible narrative and includes footnotes."

"There are moments in this book that feel out of a horror movie. The sense of momentum - 'what is going to happen?' - is incredible. Is she going to decide to leave this family or not? This central question kept me engaged."

"As a professor, this happened to me. I literally had a student at USM where a student hadn't heard of Adolf Hitler... This had never happened to me before... I was so taken aback by her not knowing. As a Jewish person in the deep south this was particularly shocking."

"How do you navigate a situation where you don't have the power? This is a family that rejects modern medicine...But the mother's tinctures allow her to gain power in this family. She's the one making money. She saves the father's life after he's burned."

"Her journals are both the first draft and the primary source. Even she recognizes that they can't always be trusted. Sometimes that becomes toxic. She's being gaslighted by her family."

"Even though she's the author of the source material, she still feels the need to get verification and line up her story with what other people experienced. The fact that she journaled so regularly is how this book was possible. It's an amazing accomplishment."

"By the end of the book this is a powerful family. They are making a lot of money, deeply connected to their community. They have a new kind of power that they didn't have at the beginning. She's telling the story of a family that has achieved something in their own right."

"This book astounded me. Reading other memoirs often for teaching - this one is complicated, understands its own position as a memoir and no matter where you are on your own educational path, you'll find something to pull out of it. It's beautifully written and a page turner."