A Great Idea at the Time: The Rise, Fall, and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books
Format: hardcover
ISBN:
9781586484873 (1586484877)
Publish date: November 4th 2008
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Pages no: 245
Edition language: English
Category:
Classics,
Non Fiction,
Writing,
History,
Academic,
Reference,
Literature,
Criticism,
Books About Books,
Education,
Academia
Although I imagined this to be a consideration of the canon in a general sense, it's actually the story behind the Great Books of the Western World collection, 54 volumes developed by a panel at the University of Chicago in the '40s.The behind-the-scenes chatter about what should be included/exclude...
I am really enjoying this book. The author treats the principle characters, Hutchins and Adler, with respect but a lot of irony. I had a set - which remained mostly unread but a great source of quotations - and their tiny print and double-column layout of 443 all-white-male works reinforced one quip...
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