Show notes (Free Summary) | PDF & Infographic | Free audiobook Imagine being brought up in isolation from the outside world. Your father is paranoid and your mother uses only herbal medicine to heal even the most horrific injuries. This was the childhood experience of Tara Westover, the author of Educated.

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Educated Summary - A Memoir by Tara Westover

(00:00 ) Introduction to StoryShots

(00:20 ) Introduction to 'Educated' by Tara Westover

(02:00 ) Tara's Unusual Childhood

(04:05 ) Lack of Education at Home

(05:46 ) Lack of Medical Attention and Care

(07:31 ) Tara's Journey to Independence

(08:58 ) Realizing the Need to Leave Home

(09:58 ) Experiencing Culture Shock at College

(12:00 ) Adapting to Life Outside Her Father's Worldview

(12:16 ) Conclusion and Next Steps

Tara Westover’s Perspective

Tara Westover is an American memoirist, essayist, and historian. Tara overcame immense childhood adversity to excel academically and become highly influential. In 2019, she was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people. Tara also has a solid academic record. She earned a Master’s degree from the University of Cambridge as a Gates Cambridge Scholar. Plus, Tara was a visiting fellow at Harvard University in 2010. Subsequently, she returned to the University of Cambridge in 2014 to earn a doctorate in intellectual history.

Childhood looks different for everyone. For some, it’s a time of happiness and innocence as you play the day away. For others, it’s more complicated.

From a young age, Tara Westover knew her life was different. She was the youngest of seven children, and her parents intended to raise their family steeped in the Mormon religion. Additionally, the children were expected to help out on the family’s rural farm.

Living as Survivalists

Tara enjoyed the carefree freedom of playing in nature and running through the hills of the nearby mountains. However, there was a reason the family lived on a rural farm. Tara’s father, Gene, had overwhelming paranoia. Gene believed that the government’s primary aim was to brainwash society and stray them away from God. This led Gene to raise the family as survivalists. Survivalists over-prepare with the expectation that the worst is inevitable. 

Therefore, Tara and her siblings had to carry supplies with them at all times. Additionally, their parents advised them to run for the hills if the government’s police ever came for them. Tara’s supplies would include herbal medicines, as traditional medicine was considered evil by her family. Plus, she carried water purifiers, guns, knives, and long-lasting meals. This upbringing was so strict that Tara’s grandmother once encouraged Tara to run away with her to Arizona. Tara’s grandmother did not hold the same beliefs as Tara’s parents. Tara thought long and hard about this proposition but eventually rejected the offer.

As well as instilling fear in Tara and his other children, Gene also had extreme views on gender roles. Gene’s Mormon beliefs encouraged him to believe that women should remain in the home as caregivers. Gene did let Tara’s mother, Faye, work as a midwife. However, this was only because the role was an extension of her caregiving role as a woman. As Faye disagreed with traditional medicine, she took a holistic approach to medicine. Essentially, she was an herbalist.

First published in Sept 2023.

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