{"product_id":"scan-artist-how-evelyn-wood-convinced-the-world-that-speed-reading-worked-9781641601627","title":"Scan Artist: How Evelyn Wood Convinced the World That Speed-Reading Worked","description":"\u003cp\u003e • Author(s): Marcia Biederman\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher: Chicago Review Press\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher Imprint: Chicago Review Press\u003cbr\u003e • BISAC: Con Artists, Hoaxes \u0026amp; Deceptions\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe best-known educator of the twentieth century was a scammer in cashmere. \"The most famous reading teacher in the world,\" as television hosts introduced her, Evelyn Wood had little classroom experience, no degrees in reading instruction, and a background that included work at the Mormon mission in Germany at the time when the church was cooperating with the Third Reich. Nevertheless, a nation spooked by Sputnik and panicked by paperwork eagerly embraced her promises of a speed-reading revolution. Journalists, lawmakers and two US presidents lent credibility to Wood's claims of turbocharging reading speeds through a method once compared to the miracle at Lourdes. \u003ci\u003eTime\u003c\/i\u003e magazine reported Woods grads could polish off \u003ci\u003eDr. Zhivago\u003c\/i\u003e in one hour; a senator swore that Wood's method had boosted his reading speed to more than ten thousand words per minute. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e But science showed that her method taught only skimming, with disastrous effects on comprehension--a fact Wood was aware of from early in her career. Fudging test results, and squelching critics, she founded a company that enrolled half a million. The course's popularity endured even as evidence of its shortcomings continued to accumulate. Today, as apps and online courses attempt to spark a speed-reading revival, this engaging look at Wood's rise from mission worker to marketer exposes the pitfalls of embracing a con artist's worthless solution to imaginary problems.","brand":"Chicago Review Press","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":45086200070295,"sku":"9781641601627","price":1540.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0666\/3471\/1191\/files\/9781641601627.webp?v=1767638856","url":"https:\/\/atlanticbooks.com\/products\/scan-artist-how-evelyn-wood-convinced-the-world-that-speed-reading-worked-9781641601627","provider":"Atlantic Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}