See also NAS recommended programs:
https://www.nas.org/resources/recommended_programs
“Here is a list of excellent programs in American studies, Western civilization, Great Books, free institutions, and the study of the Constitution and democratic government. These campus-based programs help restore rising generations’ attention to important but increasingly neglected ideas.”
Thanks for the link/list. BUMP!
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Go to the Great Books series from 1940, University of Chicago, Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren...that’s all we need...thanks.
I’ll copy that to my kids. They are strong enough and smart enough to resist some of the crap they get fed.
“Yeah - I thought it was going to be an interesting class - Human Geography”. What different cultures think and believe, how to reach them, useful things like that.” (He’s going to be a minister.) “Instead - it’s pretty much how the rest of the world is great, and white males are the problem.”
THE BOOK OF JOB (C. 1000 B.C.)
Among the most profound and unsettling stories in the Bible, The Book of Job depicts a righteous man brought to the depths of suffering by the seeming capriciousness of God. Job rejects the counsel of his friends to curse God for his fate, but he does eventually complain. God’s answer is awesome—and frightening. We picked this book because (a) it is among the most accessible points of entry to the Bible for secular students, and (b) it is a terrific story that can lead to important questions about the nature of justice.
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Or maybe - what is important in ones life.
Ridiculous list. Pushes a bit of a political agenda, lacks teaching patriotism, respect or appreciation of US exceptionalism. I recognize having read parts of a couple of these but overall, nope. If my boys asked for a reading list, it would not include but one or two of these books and even then, they’d be down on the list. Okay, for disclosure, I did not go to an Ivy League school.
Have read Don Q. and Witness but find any reading list that omits the Holy Bible ,as first on that list FAILS. For any American who does NOT have some functional understanding of the Bible —is Ignorant of our American History. And the genesis of American Law. And the foundation of our Nations Moral Ethic (when we were “born a Christian Nation....”But then the US Army trained us to consider the Foundation when training to oppose all enemy foreign or domestic.
But Moby Dick isn't included? Is this a serious list?
I certainly would put Atlas Shrugged on the list. And if we're going to include more than one Shakespeare play,Macbeth should be on the list so students get some insight into Hillary Clinton's character.
Everyone should read Up From Slavery. It was written by the first Black man to be honored on a US postage stamp. Today few people under 40 have even heard of the man or his book.
ML/NJ
Indeed.
Some classics of Western Civilization and some modern books that likely will become classics. I’d tell my kids to skip any humanities courses that aren’t absolutely required in college and read the books on this list.
I’ve read most of these authors but few of these works. I think this is a splendid list for anyone interested in casting a critical eye not only on everyone else but also on themselves.
That list was a lot better than I thought it would be.
Bkmk
bkmk
I have only read six of these—and seen the movie versions of a few others—so I have a lot of reading to do.