Prof's Choice

The West, WASPs, and liberal education.

Richard brookhiser, The Way of the WASP: How It Made America and How It Can Save It (Free Press/Macmillan 1991)—Brookhiser argues that the political and social system of the United States was invented by WASPs and that their qualities of self-restraint, civic mindedness, and deferred gratification are exactly what we need today.

John murray cuddihy, The Ordeal of Civility (Basic Books, 1974)— This underground classic argues that an ethnic group in America undergoes an "ordeal" in the course of which it shapes its bargain with pluralism and modernity. Its particularistic edges are smoothed, and it becomes "civil." This book explores the Jewish example.

Mortimer J. Adler, Truth in Religion: The Plurality of Religions and the Unity of Truth (Macmillau, 1 990) Philosopher Adler argues that Western science;: works because Western postulates are correct, and because Aquinas was right and Averroes wrong.

Richard Tarnas, The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas that have Shaped Our World View (Crown, 1991)—Tarnas argues that the creative tension between the cultures of Athens and Jerusalem, reason and revelation, produced a unique synthesis in Western culture.

Mark van Doren, Liberal Education: (Henry Holt, 1943) Why we should pay attention to books that haye lasted.