Defining the Humanities: How Rediscovering a Tradition Can Improve Our Schools

"Think of this as 'The Thinking Man's Bloom' or 'The Thinking Woman's Closing of the American Mind.' It takes up debates about education and reasons about them, where Bloom often only blasted away...This is one of the more helpful recent statements of the case for the classics, accompanied by rather venturesome curricular suggestions." - "Christian Century". "For the first time, in my estimation, has a scholar succeeded in showing the relation of humanistic studies to the personal and social life of the ancient world and of the Renaissance. He ...indicates the possibilities of bringing back an effective relationship between what is taught in our colleges and universities and the ethical perspectives of their graduates." - Charles Trinkaus. "'A Curriculum for Today' is a splendid statement bringing together in a careful and coherent way the prospects for a solid humanities curriculum." - Ernest L. Boyer. "Proctor's book is consistently engaging, scholarly, and humane ...an excellent place to begin discussions of the role of the university and the place of liberal education within it." - "Teaching Sociology". "...a stimulating treatment of a profoundly important subject, which addresses fundamental questions about the moral purpose of education in the humanities. " - "Speculum". " ...a splendid analysis of the history of the humanities. Its virtues are multiple...It is profound in its induction, stimulating in its aims and purposes, and a book to be weighed carefully by scholars of the humanities, historians, and teachers in liberal arts programs and humanities studies." - "The History Teacher". "His exciting readable book calls for a return to a study of the classics - and of the Renaissance poets and scholars, like Petrarch, who rediscovered the classics." - Michael Dirda, "Washington Post Book World". Ten years ago when this book was first published it was called Education's Great Amnesia: Reconsidering the Humanities from Petrarch to Freud. It is being reissued now with a different title for a new generation of readers who cannot have forgotten what they never knew. What are the humanities? Can we agree on a core curriculum of humanistic studies? Robert Proctor answers these questions in a provocative, readable book.

Table of Contents:
Preface to the Second Edition Introduction Part One: The Birth of the Humanities The Humanist Transformation of Classical Antiquity Petrarch and the Origins of the Humanities Cicero in Grief: The Classical Soul Revealed Ancient and Modern Categories of Thought Part Two: The Death of the Humanities in the Modern World Degeneration from Within Change from Without Part Three: Looking Forward Lessons from the Renaissance The Relevance of the Ancients A Curriculum for Today Epilogue Appendix: The Humanities and International Studies Notes Works Cited Index