The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had | 
|  | | | Title: | The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had | | Author: | Susan Wise Bauer | | Publisher: | W. W. Norton & Company | | Type: | Book / Hardcover | | Publication Date: | August, 2003 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0393050947 / 9780393050943 | | List Price: | $27.95 | | You Save: | $9.50 | | Amazon Price: | $18.45 | |
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Product Description
An engaging, accessible guide to educating yourself in the classical tradition. Surrounded by more books than ever, readers today are frequently daunted by the classics they have left unread. The Well-Educated Mind, debunking our own inferiority complexes, is a wonderful resource for anyone wishing to explore and develop the mind's capacity to read and comprehend the "greatest hits" in fiction, autobiography, history, poetry, and drama. Far from tossing readers into the swarming sea of classics and demanding that they swim, this book offers brief, entertaining histories of five literary genres, accompanied by detailed instructions on how to read each type. The annotated lists at the close of each chapter—ranging from Cervantes to A. S. Byatt, Herodotus to Paul Gilroy—preview recommended reading and encourage readers to make vital connections between ancient traditions and contemporary writing. Based on the same classical method as Bauer's terrifically successful The Well-Trained Mind, The Well-Educated Mind provides not only a thorough grounding in the classics but also a widely applicable foundation for self-education.
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Customer Reviews:
• Not What I Thought It Would Be 08 August, 2008
i was deceived by the title. it was mostly a reading guide and not some sort of survey of the "classics." plus, i've read better reading guides
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2MFXWSKC3EB0B
• Author's Perspective Is Disappointingly Slanted To The Hard Left 20 August, 2008
I am a great fan of The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home, Revised and Updated Edition, a book which Ms. Bauer wrote with her mother, Jessie Wise. Ms. Wise home-schooled this author and allowed her intellect to flourish. Unfortunately, she did not protect her from (or perhaps actively exposed her to) ugly, anti-freedom, anti-capitalistic ideas.
Think I'm exaggerating? Well, check out these passages:
Of Mein Kampf, she says that it's eerie to see Hitler's racist rants alongside other National Socialist goals that "seem quite reasonable." Then she says, "the twenty-first century may have rejected Hitler's doctrine of racial purity, but his techniques of propaganda are still much in use." Not by the federal government, of course, but by evil capitalists! "They have been turned to the service of the market, rather than the nation-state." Nation-states don't engage in propaganda? Really?
Of the The Communist Manifesto, she says it's "difficult to argue with" Marx's description of how capitalism exploits workers "in a world where every family restaurant cowers before the golden arches." She rejects his political program in favor a mixed-economy welfare state, though.
Worst of all, she totally misses the point (or ignores it) of Nineteen Eighty-Four. To Bauer, Orwell's classic is not a condemnation of the state (which she slavishly adores), but of ... advertising! Can you believe this? "Orwell's hell on earth didn't come about in 1984. But in his chilling, detailed version of a world where both mind and will can be manipulated by large and powerful institutions, he was decades ahead of the postmodernists and their condemnation of our advertisement-driven society."
Speaking of 1984: The page count of this book is padded by entirely worthless summaries of the books covered. They don't just give you a feel for what the book is about -- they give away the entire story in less than a page. For example, the 1984 synopsis *SPOILER ALERT* tells you that O'Brien works for Big Brother, that Winston is captured, and that he eventually caves in the emotional climax and tells the state to put his lover Julia's head in with the rats instead of his own. She spills all of this! I was afraid to read the summaries of any of the books I hadn't read yet.
This book is not entirely worthless. Some of the tips on how to get more out of your reading are quite good, and the book lists are good, too. Of course, they're chosen with a leftist/communist bent, but since leftist/communists dominate the culture, it's important for educated people to know what poison they purvey. But please, supplement your Galbraith with Murray Rothbard and your McPherson with some good revisionist Civil War history.
In all honesty, you'd be much better off the check this one out from the library, copy down the book lists, and then read Mortimer Adler's How to Read a Book (A Touchstone Book) for the limited amount of good stuff contained in this book. It is very depressing to see that Ms. Wise-Bauer ended up with even worse, more perverse ideas about history and economics than those poor children who are subjected to statist programming at government indoctrination centers.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3F00QUIXGDTOW
• Very Good Book 30 July, 2008
Helpful and very well organized. The author takes a very daunting task (to become "well read" and classically educated) and truly encourages and motivates the reader.
She offers her lists which, she explains, are just a starting point and not exhaustive. They are set up chronologically and she encourages the reader to make the lists their own by adding to or subtracting from the list.
She also offers her perspective and insight on how to accomplish the task at hand. For instance, she doesn't read her email prior to starting a serious reading. Her analysis of the issue hit the nail on the head.
I also appreciated the fact the author didn't re-write history by removing the Christian writings from her lists. Brava!
- Reviewed by customer ID: A34LIZSYDUWB6A
• A Scattershot Approach 02 May, 2008
Please, don't waste your money on this book. Check it out from the library if you must, but know that it takes a very, very scattershot approach to what is essentially a great books reading program.
The author's choices are often poor, both in recommended material and approach- for example, there is no reason to chide us not to read our email in the morning, yet because this doesn't work for the author, well, by God, it doesn't work at all.
I would strongly suggest looking around at university courses on Great Books, browsing their syllabi, and developing your own program instead. It will be a better use both of time and energy.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AK0SVCR11WU2G
• Great Idea, But I'm Not Crazy About The Execution 13 May, 2008
The idea of studying the Great Books chronologically by genre is a fascinating one, and I think it is a pretty good idea. Not a foolproof one (for example, you'll be able to catch references to previous novels, but not anything in Shakespeare if you haven't done the Plays chapter yet) but a very interesting one that I think has a lot going for it.
I would not recommend buying the book, though. It is very condescending, and seems to be opperating under the assumption that the reader has never read anything. Another reviewer suggested that this book is for SAHMs of toddlers, but I am one, and trust me I will not be reading Pilgrim's Progress 3 times over anytime soon! Maybe in another 10 years I'll have that sort of time. There are also some glaring omissions from the list, while I personally think that a few books are less than essential.
There is also next to no meat in this book: about half of it is plot descriptions that give away the whole story! If you're telling someone to read a list of books, do you really have to give a page-long description of the book, too? It just seemed like filler.
I'd recommend taking this book out from the library and taking a look at her list, but I think that there are better lists of Great Books out there.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AC8JTBIOS10YO
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