Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
PublicAffairs (2008), Edition: illustrated edition, Hardcover, 256 pages
Description
Explores the Great Books mania, in an entertaining and strangely poignant portrait of American popular culture on the threshold of the television age.
User reviews
LibraryThing member pbadeer
A Great Idea at the Time: The Rise, Fall and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books is the perfect read for LTers. For those unfamiliar with the concept (as I was), in the 1950's Encyclopedia Brittanica took an idea from a course at the University of Chicago to educate the american public with "Great
Admittedly, reading about the series I felt a little uneducated at times - some of the authors included in the Great Books were completely new to me (and I went to a liberal arts college) - as Beam points out, the works' obscurity and irrelevancy were part of the problem. The initial launch included NO female authors. But the idea behind the series and the business attached to it were fascinating. This book was well written, with a fair amount of humor, at no point talking down to the reader (he doesn't expect anyone to have read, or understood, Nichomachus of Gerasa's Introduction to Arithmetic (Great Books, volume 12)) and he pokes gentle fun at an interesting concept and the people and events surrounding it. Highly recommended
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Books of the Western World". 68 volumes of double column, 9 point text of classic works including scientific texts (can you say Ptolemy's The Almagest?) sold in faux leather bindings along with a Syntopicon - a cross referencing guide of all of the great ideas and which authors commented on them - for the price of $250 (this was 1952 remember) sold by door to door salesman.Admittedly, reading about the series I felt a little uneducated at times - some of the authors included in the Great Books were completely new to me (and I went to a liberal arts college) - as Beam points out, the works' obscurity and irrelevancy were part of the problem. The initial launch included NO female authors. But the idea behind the series and the business attached to it were fascinating. This book was well written, with a fair amount of humor, at no point talking down to the reader (he doesn't expect anyone to have read, or understood, Nichomachus of Gerasa's Introduction to Arithmetic (Great Books, volume 12)) and he pokes gentle fun at an interesting concept and the people and events surrounding it. Highly recommended
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LibraryThing member jwhenderson
Having been a student of the "Great Books" for more than twenty years I came to this book with a certain bias in favor of them. I found that Alex Beam has written an interesting exploration of some aspects of the Great Books phenomenon in American culture. I say some aspects because, while I do not
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disagree with many of his observations, I came away from the book with a feeling that he never developed a fundamental understanding of the importance of the Great Books. Whether the canon should be limited or not is not the most important question, rather the question is what value there is in recognizing, reading and developing an understanding, however limited, of the works of the greatest minds of the world. Reading and studying and discussing the Great Books and the ideas encompassed in them provides an education that cannot be obtained any other way. Most importantly it provides a base for continuing to grow and flourish as a human being. The author spends much of the book discussing attempts, some misguided and some not, to encourage and spread the reading of Great Books. Whether any of these attempts succeeded depended not so much on the value of the books themselves, which I believe cannot be doubted, but on the methods used by the purveyors of the Great Book experience. I can only look back on and continue my own experience which I have found invaluable in my own life. The Great Books are very much alive for me and many others. While the author discusses finding himself "occasionally succumbing to creeping great-bookism", I would suggest that thoughtful human beings would be better off by incorporating the lessons of the Great Books into to their lives. Show Less
LibraryThing member coolmama
Alex Beam writes an exploration of how the "Great Books" came into being.
The Great Books mean many things: the series, published by University of Chicago; the open to the public and literary salons in the 1940s onward, as well as the university cirriculum (which was spearheaded at Columbia).
How
The Great Books mean many things: the series, published by University of Chicago; the open to the public and literary salons in the 1940s onward, as well as the university cirriculum (which was spearheaded at Columbia).
How
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and why did this idea begin, take off, and then fade into oblivion? Show Less
LibraryThing member kristenn
I picked this up in part because I thought I owned (but had never read) the full set of Great Books, but it turns out I have the competition (Harvard Shelf) instead. But the reasons people both create and buy these sorts of definitive collections remained interesting. There is certainly the risk in
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the quote included from James Payn: "Here are the most admirable and varied materials for the creation of a prig." Although the book could get snide, it didn't seem to do so any more than contemporary style seems to require (which does drive me crazy but that's an entirely separate issue and that's why David Denby has a new book). In fact, Beam also demonstrated a lot of both affection and admiration for the parties. I would have liked to read a lot more about the customers, however. Both the people buying the set at the time and the ones who have stuck with it. Overall, the writing and topic were interesting enough at the time, but I only gave 3 stars because -- a week after finishing -- I already remember very little. And my own reading interests haven't changed a bit. Show Less
LibraryThing member Sullywriter
A surprisingly engrossing and enjoyable book. Adler and Hutchins were quite the oddballs but fascinating characters with some very intriguing ideas about education.
LibraryThing member jordanjones
Entertaining enough ...
but it’s not one of the Great Books. Seriously, though, this was a competent romp through the history field the Treat Books of the Western World, as a teaching paradigm and a publishing program. He makes a solid case, especially that the great scientific works do not
However, much of the book appears opposed to the idea that there can be a canon, however opened to include women and minorities. Yet, we know that “classics” such as Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication is the Rights of Women, Shakespeare’s King Lear, and Thomas Hardy’s Return of the Native, will continue to “teach and delight” readers. From my point of view, perhaps narrow, the failure of the Great Books of the Western World as a publishing project is paradoxically in its overselling of a too-expensive series and its lack of quality control in choosing the cheapest translations and typesetting the books for value, not readability. The author does call these out, in a great deal of detail.
He could point out a more successful program, that has a similar goal: The Library of America. This program avoided several of the pitfalls of the GBWW program. It does not assume that it has a comprehensive list of the best books. Instead, it attempts to provide “America’s greatest writing in authoritative new editions.” In many cases, the best scholarship has produced definitive editions, including content previously edited out. The books have comprehensive timelines of the authors and their times, providing a context that the GBWW volumes lack. The volumes are readable, have stay open spines, and have been more inclusive of women and minorities. These editions are sold by subscription, but also, and perhaps more commonly, as individual titles. Over time, many of the individual titles have been released in paperback, and these are only sold individually, not by subscription. The Bibliothèque de la Pléiade was the inspiration for this series, envisioned by Edmund Wilson and commencing publication in 1982, ten years after Wilson’s death, this publication has been running continuously and (it appears) successfully for 37 years.
but it’s not one of the Great Books. Seriously, though, this was a competent romp through the history field the Treat Books of the Western World, as a teaching paradigm and a publishing program. He makes a solid case, especially that the great scientific works do not
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provide a great deal of contemporary value, as science only proceeds on the theories that can be disproven but have not been, rather than a tradition. (I expected him to point out that a key tension in the modern world has been the breaking of ties with Aristotelian traditions, allowing new discoveries that were contrary to Aristotle. However, much of the book appears opposed to the idea that there can be a canon, however opened to include women and minorities. Yet, we know that “classics” such as Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication is the Rights of Women, Shakespeare’s King Lear, and Thomas Hardy’s Return of the Native, will continue to “teach and delight” readers. From my point of view, perhaps narrow, the failure of the Great Books of the Western World as a publishing project is paradoxically in its overselling of a too-expensive series and its lack of quality control in choosing the cheapest translations and typesetting the books for value, not readability. The author does call these out, in a great deal of detail.
He could point out a more successful program, that has a similar goal: The Library of America. This program avoided several of the pitfalls of the GBWW program. It does not assume that it has a comprehensive list of the best books. Instead, it attempts to provide “America’s greatest writing in authoritative new editions.” In many cases, the best scholarship has produced definitive editions, including content previously edited out. The books have comprehensive timelines of the authors and their times, providing a context that the GBWW volumes lack. The volumes are readable, have stay open spines, and have been more inclusive of women and minorities. These editions are sold by subscription, but also, and perhaps more commonly, as individual titles. Over time, many of the individual titles have been released in paperback, and these are only sold individually, not by subscription. The Bibliothèque de la Pléiade was the inspiration for this series, envisioned by Edmund Wilson and commencing publication in 1982, ten years after Wilson’s death, this publication has been running continuously and (it appears) successfully for 37 years.
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LibraryThing member jillmwo
Breezy treatment of a well-intended initiative to keep the classics alive for the middle class. A rapid read, the author doesn't have much sympathy with the actual publishing venture or those behind it, but does not speak ill of those ordinary readers who actually try to pursue the program. Good
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summer reading. Show Less
Subjects
Awards
The New York Times Notable Books of the Year (Nonfiction — 2008)
Language
Original publication date
2008
Physical description
256 p.; 8.2 inches
ISBN
1586484877 / 9781586484873
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