Battle of the Classics - How a Nineteenth-Century Debate Can Save the Humanities Today

This book analyzes crucial episodes in the history of American higher education in order to discover the best way to rescue the humanities. It urges apologists to stop focusing on the humanistic disciplines as inculcators of poorly defined skills and envisions a globalized approach to education based on humanistic masterworks.

List of contents

• Introduction: The Sick Man of Higher Education


• Chapter 1: Skills Are the New Canon


• Chapter 2: From the Studia Humanitatis to the Modern Humanities


• Chapter 3: A College Fetich?


• Chapter 4: Darwin Meets the Curriculum


• Chapter 5: Humanism vs. Humanitarianism


• Chapter 6: Toward a Truly Ecumenical Wisdom

About the author

Eric Adler is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Classics at the University of Maryland. He is the author of Classics, the Culture Wars, and Beyond and Valorizing the Barbarians: Enemy Speeches in Roman Historiography.

Summary

This book analyzes crucial episodes in the history of American higher education in order to discover the best way to rescue the humanities. It urges apologists to stop focusing on the humanistic disciplines as inculcators of poorly defined skills and envisions a globalized approach to education based on humanistic masterworks.

Additional text

Eric Adler could not have had the coronavirus in mind when he wrote The Battle of the Classics, but the timing worked out well. The humanities, so we are told, have been undergoing a series of crises for years, and the scene has only grown bleaker of late.

Product details

• Authors: Eric Adler, Eric (Associate Professor of Classics Adler
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 08.02.2023
• EAN: 9780197680810
• ISBN: 978-0-19-768081-0
• No. of pages: 272
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, HISTORY / World, EDUCATION / History, EDUCATION / Educational Policy & Reform / General, LITERARY COLLECTIONS / General, c 1800 to c 1900, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, General & world history, Classical texts, History of Education, Educational strategies & policy, General and world history, Ancient, classical and medieval texts, Educational strategies and policy