The Great Books: A Journey through 2,500 Years of the West's Classic Literature
10 best books like The Great Books: A Journey through 2,500 Years of the West's Classic Literature (Anthony O'Hear): 501 Great Writers: A Comprehensive Guide to the Giants of Literature, God, Philosophy, Universities: A Selective History of the Catholic Philosophical Tradition, Every Book Its Reader: The Power of the Printed Word to Stir the World, The Thomas Paine Reader, The Devil Knows Latin: Why America Needs the Classical Tradition, The Great Tradition: Classic Readings on What it Means to Be an Educated Human Being, Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry, A Humane Economy: The Social Framework of the Free Market, Reading in Bed: Personal Essays on the Glories of Reading, The American Intellectual Tradition: Volume II: 1865 to the Present
501 Great Writers: A Comprehensive Guide to the Giants of Literature
| Author | Julian Patrick |
| ISBN | 0764161342 |
Entertaining and informative, this collection of brief, informal biographies spans the centuries from Sophocles in ancient Greece to Harper Lee in America's Deep South. Along the way, readers will enjoy pithy biographical sketches of existentialists Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre, French...
God, Philosophy, Universities: A Selective History of the Catholic Philosophical Tradition
'What does it mean to be a human being?' Given this perennial question, Alasdair MacIntyre, one of America's preeminent philosophers, presents a compelling argument on the necessity and importance of philosophy. Because of a need to better understand Catholic philosophical thought, especially...
| Author | Nicholas A. Basbanes |
| ISBN | 0060593245 |
Inspired by a landmark exhibition mounted by the British Museum in 1963 to celebrate five eventful centuries of the printed word, Nicholas A. Basbanes offers a lively consideration of writings that have "made things happen" in the world, works that have both nudged the course of history and fired the...
| Author | Thomas Paine |
| ISBN | 0140444963 |
This major collection demonstrates the extent to which Thomas Paine (1737—1809) was an inspiration to the Americans in their struggle for independence, a passionate supporter of the French Revolution and perhaps the outstanding English radical writer of his age. It contains all of Paine's key...
| Author | E. Christian Kopff |
| ISBN | 1882926250 |
It's tremendously learned, and mostly well-written, and I want to agree with his message because I think a classics-heavy education is a great idea, but I disagree strongly with almost everything he says. His grand scheme seems to be teaching children Latin rather than social studies, and completely...
| Author | Richard Gamble |
| ISBN | 1933859253 |
Frustrated with the continuing educational crisis of our time, concerned parents, teachers, and students sense that true reform requires more than innovative classroom technology, standardized tests, or skills training. An older tradition—the Great Tradition—of education in the West...
| Author | Michael Ignatieff |
| ISBN | 0691114749 |
Michael Ignatieff draws on his extensive experience as a writer and commentator on world affairs to present a penetrating account of the successes, failures, and prospects of the human rights revolution. Since the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, this revolution...
| Author | Wilhelm Röpke |
| ISBN | 1882926242 |
This classic book, by a long-dead and almost-forgotten German economist, is suddenly relevant again. I have had a copy on my bookshelf for thirty years, never read, and I was startled by how timely "A Humane Economy" is. Today, elements of Left and Right are ganging up to kick neoliberalism when it’s...
| Author | Steven Gilbar |
| ISBN | 1567920950 |
What do Emerson, Proust, Nabokov, and Calvino all have in common beyond the fact they were all great authors? They all wrote fascinating essays on the art of reading books. Steven Gilbar, a lawyer who is foremost a reader, selected and edited a delightful compilation of essays on books and reading for...
The American Intellectual Tradition: Volume II: 1865 to the Present
| Author | David A. Hollinger |
| ISBN | 0195183401 |
Revised and updated, the fifth edition of this now standard two-volume anthology brings together some of the most historically significant writings in American intellectual history. Uniquely comprehensive, The American Intellectual Tradition includes classic works in philosophy, religion,...
Cosmopolis: The Hidden Agenda of Modernity
| Author | Stephen Toulmin |
| ISBN | 0226808386 |
In the seventeenth century, a vision arose which was to captivate the Western imagination for the next three hundred years: the vision of Cosmopolis, a society as rationally ordered as the Newtonian view of nature. While fueling extraordinary advances in all fields of human endeavor, this vision...
| Author | Lucy Daniel |
| ISBN | 1844036057 |
Written and selected by a range of international writers, academics, and critics, here’s an instantly accessible and intelligent look at literary history and criticism over the past century. From key novels to memorable protagonists, admired authors to pivotal books both banned and beloved,...
The Modern Library : The Two Hundred Best Novels in English Since 1950
| Author | Colm Tóibín |
| ISBN | 0330341820 |
This came out in 1999 and so is a neat list of 200 novels from 50 years which is…er, ummm, one moment …. About four per year, roughly. I think.
Of these 200 I have read a mere 58 and of those 58 only 17 were out-and-out ghastly (Earthly Powers, Housekeeping, Last Orders etc) so that’s a reasonable...
| Author | Russell Kirk |
| ISBN | 1882926994 |
Typically, I am a pretty great reader. I finish books quickly. But if book-reading-records were “broken”, this book did it for me.
It took me three weeks to read this whole book. Now, I have to add that that is at a ploddy speed. I didn't read for hours each day, and sometimes I didn't read at...
| Author | Allan Bloom |
| ISBN | 0671891200 |
Based on the lives and writings of the ancient authors who influenced our modern times. You can get it as a used book from half.com.
Page 30: Bloom sums up his greater need to write on such a theme:
"But nowhere is this a more urgent task than in matters of eros, the first and best hope of human...
The Therapy of Desire: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics
| Author | Martha C. Nussbaum |
| ISBN | 0691000522 |
The Epicureans, Skeptics, and Stoics practiced philosophy not as a detached intellectual discipline, but as a worldly art of grappling with issues of daily and urgent human significance: the fear of death, love and sexuality, anger and aggression. Like medicine, philosophy to them was a rigorous...
The Death of Character: Moral Education in an Age Without Good or Evil
| Author | James Davison Hunter |
| ISBN | 0465031773 |
The Death of Character is a broad historical, sociological, and cultural inquiry into the moral life and moral education of young Americans based upon a huge empirical study of the children themselves. The children's thoughts and concerns-expressed here in their own words-shed a whole new light...
Small is Still Beautiful: Economics as if Families Mattered
| Author | Joseph Pearce |
| ISBN | 1933859059 |
A Third of a century ago, E. F. Schumacher rang out a timely warning against the idolatry of giantism with his book Small Is Beautiful. Few books before or since have spoken so profoundly to urgent economic and social considerations. Humanity was lurching blindly in the wrong direction, argued Schumacher....
| Author | Lon L. Fuller |
| ISBN | 0300010702 |
In a lengthy new concluding chapter labeled "A Reply to Critics," Lon L. Fuller extends and clarifies his definition of the relation between law and morality put forward in the first (1964) edition of The Morality of Law. His original argument distinguishes between the morality of duty and the morality...
Into the Looking-Glass Wood: Essays on Books, Reading, and the World
| Author | Alberto Manguel |
| ISBN | 0156012650 |
Alberto Manguel has enchanted hundreds of thousands of readers with his bestselling books, including The Dictionary of Imaginary Places. Now he has assembled a personal collection of his own essays that will enchant anyone interested in reading, writing, or the world. Through personal stories...
Great Books of the Western World
| Author | Mortimer J. Adler |
| ISBN | 0852295316 |
Encyclopædia Britannica is proud to offer one of the most acclaimed publishing achievements of the 20th century, Great Books of the Western World. This monumental collection compiles history's greatest written works, from the ancient classics to more recent masterpieces. Great Books of the Western...
The Crusades: Iron Men and Saints
| Author | Harold Lamb |
| ISBN | 1417906391 |
1930. With numerous illustrations. In this volume is told the story of the first crusaders. It begins with their setting out, and it ends with the death of the last survivor. Eight hundred and thirty-five years have passed since then, and the lines of these men are known to us only by the chronicles of their...
| Author | Anthony Burgess |
| ISBN | 0671554859 |
Anthony Burgess admitted in an interview that he pumped this book out in just two weeks because he needed the money. He could only do that because as a reviewer for The Yorkshire Post he reviewed 350 books in just over two years. It is also true that he liberally plagiarized for the first part of this book....
| Author | Mark A. Noll |
| ISBN | 0802849482 |
One of our foremost historians of religion here chronicles the arrival of Christianity in the New World, tracing the turning points in the development of the immigrant church that have led to today's distinctly American faith.
Taking a unique approach to this fascinating subject, Noll focuses...
