Robert L. Hampel

I carried punch cards to the computer lab at Cornell when I was a 19th century political historian. After graduate school I discovered narrative history and set aside my correlation coefficients and multiple regressions. Historians should tell good stories; save the numbers for the endnotes.

I like to study quirky educators with bold if sometimes bizarre ideas. My new book begins with Norman Rockwell, earning and losing a fortune by selling art lessons through the mail. Along the way I profile speed reader Evelyn Wood, Clifton (Cliff Notes) Hillegass, simplified speller Melvil (card catalog) Dewey, and other dreamers who thought American education was too difficult and too dull.