Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation

There are nine percent fewer students enrolled as liberal arts majors in the United States. This book claims that a liberal arts education is the pathway for understanding the self and transforming one’s life. The author is an immigrant who found his first book of philosophy in the trash of a neighbor’s house. Those were the roots of his study leading to his ascension to Senior Lecturer at Columbia University. He now teaches other students from low-income backgrounds the magic within classic literature.

Such is the state of the times and anxiety among the young, that many focus on tech-related degrees as a pathway to a lucrative career. The author of this book makes the case that a classical education trains one to think and become well-rounded and thus, more valuable to society as a whole. The author’s approach, which is very readable, is to take his own life as an example, blend it with the explication of classic texts (particularly Plato) and relate it all to his current students. It is a good defense of broad education and, of course, a well-written one.