The most celebrated and influential work of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (1811-1888), author, scholar, educator, and President of Argentina from 1868 to 1874. Inscribed on flyleaf: "Presented to The Page Literary Society of Penn. State Normal School by the Author." With Page Literary Society bookplate on front endpaper. Born in obscurity, Sarmiento worked his way into eminence much as did Abraham Lincoln. His political activities--especially those directed against the despotic dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas--forced him into exile in Chile, where he published numerous pamphlets and articles and, in 1845, his classic 'Civilization i Barbarie. Vida de Juan Facundo Quiroga...' The book is a combination of social history, fiction, and biography, as it seeks to explain the triumph of barbarism over civilization in Argentina. Sarmiento lived in Chile and travelled in Europe and the United States until he was able to return to Argentina in 1852 and resume his political career. From 1865 to 1868 Sarmiento served as minister plenipotentiary of Argentina in the United States, befriending such men as Emerson and Longfellow, and, no doubt, inscribing this book during a visit to the State Normal School in Millersville, Pennsylvania. (The founder of the school, James Pyle Wickersham [1825-1891], for many years Pennsylvania's State Superintendent of Common Schools, was a personal friend of Sarmiento, who invited him to become Minister of Public Instruction in Argentina.) In 1868 Sarmiento returned to Argentina to head the government. He was known as the "Teacher President" because of his intense support of education. Palau 302201; Sabin 77070.