FD has been reading two books about the Great Books. A Great Idea at the Time by Alex Beam is about the Great Books of the Western World, a project of the Encyclopedia Britannica and the University of Chicago (Mortimor Adler & Robert Hutchins). The Whole Five Feet by Christopher R. Beha is about the Harvard Bookshelf of great books. The Beha book is the better of the two, because Beha includes a memoir of himself and his family and the year in which he read the volumes in the Harvard series. As Lewis Carroll knew, we want “pictures or conversations” or at least something of “real life” in our books.
Beha even makes one think that perhaps Thoreau (and Mr. FD who agrees with him) is right that one should “read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.” Of all the authors and books described by both Beam and Beha, FD is thinking that the Stoic Philosopher Epictetus sounds the most interesting. Perhaps FD will add reading Epcitetus to the New Year’s Resolution list.
Argumentum ad Hominem
The subtitle should have read, Every Negative Fact and Innuendo I Could Dredge Up
Although he was not particularly unkind to me in the book, I found virtually every page to be a smart-alecky and snide diatribe of the worst order against the Great Books, Adler, Hutchins, et al. Plus the book is replete with errors of commission and omission.
As an effective antidote, I prescribe Robert Hutchins’ pithy essay, The Great Conversation.
If the Great Books crusade is as bleak as Beam purports, then happily, not many will read his invective book.
Max Weismann,
President and co-founder with Mortimer Adler, Center for the Study of The Great Ideas
Chairman, The Great Books Academy (3,000+ students)