Bonfire of the Humanities
Subtitle: Rescuing the Classics in an Impoverished Age
Publisher: ISI Books
Published: June 2001
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 373
ISBN-13: 9781882926541
Subjects: Educational Policy & Reform; Education / Teaching; Ancient and Classical; United States; Education; Higher; Education, Humanistic; Aims & Objectives; Classical education
Description: "In Bonfire of the Humanities: Rescuing the Classics in an Impoverished Age, Hanson, Heath, and Thornton begin by unsparingly documenting the degeneration of classics. They also reveal the root causes of this decline.

They point to academics themselves - their careerist ambitions, incessant self-promotion, and overspecialized, inaccessible work, among other things - as the source of the crisis, and call for a return to "academic populism," a method charaterized by approachable writing, selfless commitment to students and teaching, and respect for the legacy of freedom and democracy that the ancients bequeathed to the West.".

"The authors lay out detailed proposals to arrest the decline in humane learning. These proposals, and especially their call for professors to embrace academic populism, merit a fair and widespread hearing. Bonfire of the Humanities should be read by anyone interested in a sophisticated yet accessible analysis of the root problems afflicting academia and the necessary measures to effect recovery."--BOOK JACKET.