Free Republic

Not that anybody is wondering, but if you asked me what books have been of the greatest influence on how and what I think, aside from the BIBLE, and the plays of Shakespeare, I'd answer: Homer, Odyssey Plato, Phaedrus Plato, Symposium Virgil, Aeneid Augustine, Confessions Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy Anonymous, The Quest of the Holy Grail Dante, The Divine Comedy Spenser, The Faerie Queene Herbert, The Temple Pascal, Pensees Milton, Paradise Lost Fielding, Tom Jones Boswell, Life of Johnson Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France Manzoni, The Betrothed Dickens, Bleak House Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov Marcel, Man Against...

We come bearing gifts of book recommendations for your holiday break and for making America great again!

e all have memories of books that have ignited our imaginations but is there one special book that has changed your life? That's the premise behind a fascinating new collection of essays featuring contributions from writers, politicians and actors, who discuss the book that holds a special place in their hearts. Among the contributors are Sofia Coppola, Margaret Atwood, Dave Eggers and Jodi Picoult. The entry I particularly liked was from the country music singer and songwriter Rosanne Cash, who seemed to capture what Marcel Proust said about there being no days of our childhood we live so fully as...

Read Aldous Huxley’s review of 1984 he sent to George Orwell Several months after George Orwell's dystopian classic 1984 was published in 1949, Aldous Huxley sent a letter to his former French pupil. The Brave New World author had received a copy of 1984 from the publisher at Orwell's behest, but his poor eyesight prevented him from finishing the book for several months. In his letter to Orwell, the fifty-year-old author compared the two books' screwed-up futures and saw the Orwellian Oceanic dystopia as a predecessor to his own World State. Wrote Huxley in October 1949: Agreeing with all that...

Need Help on Roman History Reading List....

Eight years ago today, a famous American philosopher died who had lived as a Catholic the last year of his life. Not so long ago, his name -- Mortimer J. Adler -- was synonymous with the "great books" approach to education he had pioneered with Robert Hutchins at the University of Chicago in the 1940s and 1950s. His edition of The Great Books of the Western World is still often seen if you survey the bookshelves of the homes and offices you visit.   Adler's pedagogy, like his Aristotelian-Thomistic philosophy, was rejected by the academy he left in mid-career....

Best Books for an MBA As the New York Times recently highlighted, a business student (or CEO’s) best friend is a well-constructed library. The following are the books that I highly recommend to any current, aspiring, or “damn, why did I go to law school!” MBA student. Certain titles may be a bit ‘atypical’ at first glance; indeed they are anything but. [Note: each title links to the listing on Amazon.com] The Power of ProductivityAtlas ShruggedAgainst the GodsThe Little PrinceWSJ Guide to Understanding Money & InvestingWikinomicsThe Art of WarThe Long Tail George Soros on GlobalizationWhen Genius FailedGuns Germs & SteelBeating...

Before finally sitting down to write "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," Edward Gibbon briefly contemplated a project entitled "The History of the Liberty of the Swiss," as well as a book about an obscure Egyptian pharaoh whose agricultural innovations ultimately led to the invention of geometry. After being banished by Augustus Caesar to a backwater on the edge of the Black Sea, Ovid wrote a eulogy in honor of his nemesis in the language of the barbarians that inhabited the region. Both the eulogy and the language have disappeared. .... Those intrigued by such oddities, or even...

CROSS-COUNTRY GREAT BOOKS TOUR & DOCUMENTARY Next summer, Dr. Elliot McGucken, founder of jollyroger.com, will take five of his books on tour! Dates & venues TBA. Email mcgucken@jollyroger.com with any questions or venue suggestions. J o l l y r o g e r . c o m: N a v i g a t i n g A n A m e r i c a n R e n a i s s a n c e "You touch my heart, McGucken, with your words. DON'T STOP!" Matt Drudge-- of drudgereport.com "Just a quick note to remind you...

1. Liberals detest the Truth so much that they will often refuse to make money off of it. It’s a matter of principle. 2. The main problem with liberal solutions to liberal problems is that they cause more liberal problems which afford opportunities for more liberal solutions. 3. Venture Capitalists can’t afford poetry. 4. Cynicism and irony are the liberals’ faith, and to be accepted into their elite ranks, one must harbor lowered expectations in one’s heart. One must believe that words shouldn’t mean anything, one must believe that character is of no import in leaders nor novels, one must...

TWO HUNDRED AND SOMETHING PEARLS OF WISDOM FROM THE JOLLY ROGER'S TREASURE CHEST THE PIRATE PROPHETS STRIKE GOLD 1. If words don't mean anything, like how all the liberal-postmodern- administrator-instructors are always saying, then how come they never shut up? 2. Separation of the church and state does not mean the eradication of moral standards by the state. 3. The quickest way to a girl's heart is through her mind. 4. Ignorance of the law is no excuse, and knowledge of it shouldn't be. 5. Bureaucracy breeds mediocrity, and mediocrity returns the favor. 6. The only way to pass a...

WASHINGTON, D.C., OCT. 22, 2003 (Zenit.org).- Campion College of Washington, a two-year Catholic core curriculum program, plans to open its doors next September. The new college is patterned after Campion College of San Francisco, California, which opened last month. Robert Royal of the Faith & Reason Institute will be president of the new school. Both Campion Colleges offer a "Great Books" curriculum and offer an associate degree in Catholic humanities. "Campion students will be prepared to go on to a variety of different institutions," says Royal. "They can continue their work at a Catholic university or prepare themselves for careers...