Introduction to Great Books

Lesson One presents the history of the Great Books/core curriculum approach to higher education and answers such questions as: Who advocated for Great Books? What was their reasoning behind such a course of study? What conditions led them to their conclusions. Included are John Henry Newman, Edward Yeomans, and Robert Hutchins.

Lesson Two briefs you on how the act of reading itself differs profoundly from watching, a cognitive shift with sociological implications comparable to the move from oral communication to typographic communication.

This Lesson answers the question posed by author and University of Virginia Professor Mark Edmundson in his book Why Read?

Lesson Four answers the most common and vexing Great Books question--how do you decide that any book is "better" than any other book? Who is to say? Based on what?

Lesson Five argues that reading Great Books is essential to the preservation of a democratic way of life. Northwestern Professor and translator Clare Cavanagh argues in Lyric Poetry and Modern Politics that a form of political resistance is Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe was . . . lyric poetry because it assumes a unique, inner, private self beyond the reach of the State.

Critics of Great Books and core curriculum education are legion. They make several accusations about Great Books: that they are elitist, racist, sexist, irrelevant, and so on. We examine each objection and provide a response.

Reading is in many ways unnatural and must be learned. Reading challenging texts is even harder. Lesson Seven takes you on a journey through Mortimer Adler and Charles van Doren's timeless advice about how to take on a daunting book.

Lesson Eight provides a discussion of one particular great book, Herman Melville's Billy Budd. Certainly, you would profit from reading Melville's "inside narrative" first but you can also benefit from my observations about this masterpiece.