Walt Whitman Rostow - Early Life

Early Life

Walt Rostow was born in New York City to a Russian Jewish immigrant family. His parents, Victor and Lillian Rostow, were active socialists and their three sons, Eugene Victor Debs Rostow, Ralph Waldo Emerson Rostow and Walt Whitman Rostow, were named after Eugene V. Debs, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Walt Whitman. Rostow entered Yale University at age 15 on a full scholarship, graduated at 19, and completed his Ph.D. there in 1940. He also won a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Balliol College, Oxford, where he completed a B.Litt. degree. In 1936, during the Edward VIII abdication crisis, he assisted the broadcaster Alistair Cooke, who reported on the events for the NBC radio network. After completing his education he started teaching economics at Columbia University.

Read more about this topic:  Walt Whitman Rostow

Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:

    He had long before indulged most unfavourable sentiments of our fellow-subjects in America. For, as early as 1769,... he had said of them, “Sir, they are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for any thing we allow them short of hanging.”
    Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)

    A child is beset with long traditions. And his infancy is so old, so old, that the mere adding of years in the life to follow will not seem to throw it further back—it is already so far.
    Alice Meynell (1847–1922)