My Larger Education was published by Doubleday, Page & Company in 1911, a decade after Up from Slavery. Where the earlier book told the story of Washington’s rise, this sequel addresses the education that came after success — the lessons learned from managing a major institution, navigating national politics, and leading a people whose aspirations were both urgent and diverse.
The book is more relaxed than Up from Slavery, less carefully constructed for fundraising purposes, and consequently more revealing. Washington discusses his disputes with the “intellectuals” — his term for Du Bois and the advocates of classical education and political agitation — with a combination of respect and condescension that illuminates the genuine philosophical divide. He also addresses his relationship with Andrew Carnegie, Theodore Roosevelt, and other figures of power with a frankness that the earlier book’s strategic modesty did not permit.
The title’s claim to “larger education” is characteristic Washington: the education that matters is not what you learn in school but what you learn from doing — from building things, managing people, raising money, and navigating a society that considers you inferior. The philosophy is pragmatic to its core, and its limitations are the limitations of pragmatism itself: it works until it encounters problems that cannot be solved by working harder within the existing system.
Collecting My Larger Education
First edition (Doubleday, Page & Co., New York, 1911): Cloth binding.
Market values:
- First edition, near fine: $200–$500
- Very good: $80–$200
- Good: $30–$80