Content Is Key

Content Is Key

The Battle of the Classics: How a Nineteenth-Century Debate Can Save the Humanities Today by Eric Adler. Oxford University Press, 2020. Hardcover, 272 pages, $35. Reviewed by Joshua Kinlaw It is salutary to be reminded that the history of Western education has always...
The Human Story Books

The Human Story Books

By Dr. Anika T. Prather In These Pages There is so much to glean from the ancient folk There is so much to learn from those who spoke centuries ago It is different for every person How the books connect to the soul But they will if you let them And it may take time to...
Naive Virtue?

Naive Virtue?

First Principles: What America’s Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country by Thomas E. Ricks. Harper, 2020. Hardcover, 416 pages, $30. Reviewed by Casey Chalk A classic, said Mark Twain, is “a book which people praise but don’t...
The Ancient-Modern Quarrel over Tragedy

The Ancient-Modern Quarrel over Tragedy

Tragedy, the Greeks, and Us By Simon Critchley. Vintage Books, 2020. Paperback, 322 pages. $17. Reviewed by Grant Havers The day after the passing of Sir Winston Churchill in 1965, Leo Strauss delivered a philosophical eulogy to his students, contrasting “the...
Thebes Gets Its Due

Thebes Gets Its Due

Thebes: The Forgotten City of Ancient Greece by Paul Cartledge. Picador Press, 2020. Hardcover, 287 pages, $30. Reviewed by Clayton Trutor Paul Cartledge makes a compelling case for the centrality of the often “forgotten” city of Thebes to the story of Ancient Greece....