Book Description: An engaging, accessible guide to educating yourself in the classical tradition.
Surrounded by more books than ever, readers today are frequently daunted by the classics they have left unread. The Well-Educated Mind, debunking our own inferiority complexes, is a wonderful resource for anyone wishing to explore and develop the mind's capacity to read and comprehend the "greatest hits" in fiction, autobiography, history, poetry, and drama.
Far from tossing readers into the swarming sea of classics and demanding that they swim, this book offers brief, entertaining histories of five literary genres, accompanied by detailed instructions on how to read each type. The annotated lists at the close of each chapter—ranging from Cervantes to A. S. Byatt, Herodotus to Paul Gilroy—preview recommended reading and encourage readers to make vital connections between ancient traditions and contemporary writing.
Based on the same classical method as Bauer's terrifically successful The Well-Trained Mind, The Well-Educated Mind provides not only a thorough grounding in the classics but also a widely applicable foundation for self-education.
not what i thought it would be i was deceived by the title. it was mostly a reading guide and not some sort of survey of the "classics." plus, i've read better reading guides
Very good book Helpful and very well organized. The author takes a very daunting task (to become "well read" and classically educated) and truly encourages and motivates the reader.
She offers her lists which, she explains, are just a starting point and not exhaustive. They are set up chronologically and she encourages the reader to make the lists their own by adding to or subtracting from the list.
She also offers her perspective and insight on how to accomplish the task at hand. For instance, she doesn't read her email prior to starting a serious reading. Her analysis of the issue hit the nail on the head.
I also appreciated the fact the author didn't re-write history by removing the Christian writings from her lists. Brava!
Great idea, but I'm not crazy about the execution The idea of studying the Great Books chronologically by genre is a fascinating one, and I think it is a pretty good idea. Not a foolproof one (for example, you'll be able to catch references to previous novels, but not anything in Shakespeare if you haven't done the Plays chapter yet) but a very interesting one that I think has a lot going for it.
I would not recommend buying the book, though. It is very condescending, and seems to be opperating under the assumption that the reader has never read anything. Another reviewer suggested that this book is for SAHMs of toddlers, but I am one, and trust me I will not be reading Pilgrim's Progress 3 times over anytime soon! Maybe in another 10 years I'll have that sort of time. There are also some glaring omissions from the list, while I personally think that a few books are less than essential.
There is also next to no meat in this book: about half of it is plot descriptions that give away the whole story! If you're telling someone to read a list of books, do you really have to give a page-long description of the book, too? It just seemed like filler.
I'd recommend taking this book out from the library and taking a look at her list, but I think that there are better lists of Great Books out there.
A Scattershot Approach Please, don't waste your money on this book. Check it out from the library if you must, but know that it takes a very, very scattershot approach to what is essentially a great books reading program.
The author's choices are often poor, both in recommended material and approach- for example, there is no reason to chide us not to read our email in the morning, yet because this doesn't work for the author, well, by God, it doesn't work at all.
I would strongly suggest looking around at university courses on Great Books, browsing their syllabi, and developing your own program instead. It will be a better use both of time and energy.
Reading with a strong normative, leftisit and feminist perspective The value of this book is high if it is taken as just one of many and varied books to be consulted on the same subject. We all have limited time and need guidance in choosing a lifetime reading program.
Systematic reading and thinking will add to the depth of our individual thought, public discourse and personal fulfillment. But, each such book we consider has to be recognized for its limitations and biases. Knowing the biases, we can either further or diversify the pattern of thinking.
This book has special limitations compared to the kind of lists you would expect, for example, from Daniel Boorstin or Will Durant. Rather than claiming to be a general guide to a "Well Educated Mind", this book should be titled something like a "Socialist's Guide to a Modern Left-Leaning Mind." We also know, of course, of such lists from Bloom and others which are right leaning. So the focus here is not to judge the viewpoint, but to understand and identify the genre of the book at hand.
The perspective of historians such as Boorstin, Durant and Toynbee tend to involve a "positive theory" of history and culture. By such a standard, the present book is much more normative and reflects the writer's contemporary political and ideological biases perhaps more than is helpful -- if the reader's goal is to gain a comprehensive and balanced intellectual perspective.
Based on a cumulative understanding of the composition of our actual world today and reflections on how we arrived here from the Paleolithic Age, this particular reader's guide has at least four over-arching biases.
Namely:
1. The list is "god challenged" as it pays too little attention to the cultural basis of religion;
2. The list is feminist and reflects a modern feminist viewpoint;
3. The list is politically left leaning; and
4. The list is racially political as it reflects more of the left leaning Black Liberation Theology than is historically and culturally relevant.
Because of these biases, the books listed in this guide do not comport well with the reality of the development of Western Civilization. In some cases the selections are simply not the best in breed. And, in general, the portfolio of selections ignores the actual impact of the works which produce the most leverage in understanding the world we live in. Topics such as the Bible, Julius Caesar and Napoleon Bonaparte are ignored. Some works, meanwhile, are indicated as histories which are little more than modern political polemics.
More universally defined, a well educated mind will subscribe to a positive theory of history. In other words, the goal will be to understand Western/World culture it as it was -- and as it is -- with as little normative thinking as possible.
A reading program supporting a positive theory needs to be a kind of market portfolio. Positive theories produce a cultivated and balanced mind. The only reading list that can accurately have the broad label of "Well Educated" is the list which balances a comprehensive time-series of civilization with emphasis on Western culture and the cross-section of political views.
There are other specific weaknesses in the emphasis of this book. It for example, ignores Tolstoy's War and Peace. Accordingly, what is broadly thought to be the greatest work of historical fiction ever produced does not get any emphasis. Consequently, the list places too little weight on Russian Literature and the role of Napoleon Bonaparte in history. To put this in perspective it is worth observing that of the ten or so volumes of Durant's study of civilization as much as 25% is devoted to Bonaparte and the transition of Western culture from the Enlightenment to the era of Romanticism. Not having the time or incentive to cover all the background a reader will often find War and Peace a very efficient way to cover much of this historical ground -- while being entertained.
In addition to errors of omission, the list over values questionable contemporary selections such as the Woodward and Bernstein book on Watergate. We have to be circumspect and acknowledge that their book has little enduring value and simply promotes and/or excuses a hatred of Richard Nixon that will not likely last beyond the current generation. A list that incorporates Woodward and Bernstein and ignores Gibbons cannot be completely trusted for enduring political perspective.
Readers seeking an unbiased non-normative view can develop their own list from a portfolio of lists. Such a synthesis would tend to average over the ideological anomalies and yield an unbiased focus. See my List of Reading Lists as a basis for such choices.
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