[lbo-talk] Essential Reading - Hah!

[John Wesley]

Does anyone remember the mass-marketed 54-volume set of "The Great Books" of the Western World, that was so extensively advertised in popular-circulation magazines back in the Sixties?  I think that it may also be related to the concept of having all one's "essential" readings, in one handy collection. Funny, I haven't seen or heard of the "Great Books" set being marketed in years.  Another casualty of the Internet, maybe?
Mike G.

El pueblo armado jamas sera aplastado!

 

________________________________

 From: Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu>
To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org 
Sent: Saturday, February 4, 2012 12:37 PM
Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Essential Reading - Hah!

  
If I recall correctly, St. Johns College had a curriculum wholly grounded in
"The Great Books." And it was by no means posited as a goal of the education
of the many -- I was admitted to Chicago, but there was no way I could
afford it. So I attended Western Michigan College of Education instead. I
think there are still those possessed by the delusion of "Essential Reading
for the Good Life" or something like that. See Alan Bloom's bizarre book.
Some still take it seriously.

You have heard of "muscular Christianity." The Great Books were muscular
humanism.

Carrol

-----Original Message-----
From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
On Behalf Of Jim Farmelant
Sent: Saturday, February 04, 2012 8:49 AM
To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Essential Reading - Hah!

On Sat, 4 Feb 2012 15:37:08 +0200 Joseph Catron <jncatron at gmail.com>
writes:
> On Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 11:04 PM, Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
> 
> As many histories have pointed out, as late as the mid-18th-c it was 
> widely
> > assumed that a list of books existed which all "educated men" 
> shared in
> > common.
> 
> 
> How does this differ from the "great books" concept, which arose in 
> the
> United States in the 1920s and 30s?

R obert Hutchins and Mortimer Adler were among the leading
advocates of that, and they had a rather specific agenda behind
this which was based on Adler's neo-Thomism.


> 
> 
> > Anyone who has not read Wellek, Frye, & Tamas is of course not 
> competent to
> > engage in this discussion.
> 
> 
> Maybe not, but try and stop me!

Anyone who has not read Farmelant is not competent
to engage in ANY discussion on this list.

Jim Farmelant
http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant
www.foxymath.com
Learn or Review Basic Math


> 
> -- 
> "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure 
> mægen
> lytlað."
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