The Great Tradition: Classic Readings on What it Means to Be an Educated Human Being [Hardcover]

Richard Gamble (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2007 | ISBN-10: 1933859253 | ISBN-13: 978-1933859255

Frustrated with the continuing educational crisis of our time, concerned parents, teachers, and students sense that true reform requires more than innovative classroom technology, standardized tests, or skills training. An older tradition—the Great Tradition—of education in the West is waiting to be heard. Since antiquity, the Great Tradition has defined education first and foremost as the hard work of rightly ordering the human soul, helping it to love what it ought to love, and helping it to know itself and its maker. In the classical and Christian tradition, the formation of the soul in wisdom, virtue, and eloquence took precedence over all else, including instrumental training aimed at the inculcation of “useful” knowledge.    Edited by historian Richard Gamble, this anthology reconstructs a centuries-long conversation about the goals, conditions, and ultimate value of true education. Spanning more than two millennia, from the ancient Greeks to contemporary writers, it includes substantial excerpts from more than sixty seminal writings on education. Represented here are the wisdom and insight of such figures as Xenophon, Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Cicero, Basil, Augustine, Hugh of St. Victor, Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Erasmus, Edmund Burke, John Henry Newman, Thomas Arnold, Albert Jay Nock, Dorothy Sayers, C. S. Lewis, and Eric Voegelin.   In an unbroken chain of giving and receiving, the Great Tradition embraced the accumulated wisdom of the past and understood education as the initiation of students into a body of truth. This unique collection is designed to help parents, students, and teachers reconnect with this noble legacy, to articulate a coherent defense of the liberal arts tradition, and to do battle with the modern utilitarians and vocationalists who dominate educational theory and practice.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The Great Tradition provides a treasury of insights into Western education that no school leadership can afford to ignore. Something will speak to everybody with a mildly curious mind: headmasters who want help with the curriculum (Quintilian), parents who want to raise wise and virtuous children (Chrysostom), lovers of the classics (Philip Melanchthon), students setting life goals (Basil The Great), teachers who want help focusing their efforts (Aristotle), the historically curious (from Plato to C. S. Lewis), and board members setting priorities (Paul Elmer More). Every now and then someone does the world the invaluable favor of reminding us how we got here and what we’ve left behind. Richard M. Gamble has done so for a new generation."
— Andrew Kern, President, CiRCE Institute, and coauthor of Classical Education, The Movement Sweeping America

"An impressive new volume of selected readings which trace the thread of education as it is woven into our cultural fabric, spanning more than 2,000 years, from the ancient Greeks to contemporary writers....Gamble has delivered a rich resource for families, teachers and schools —yes, even public schools, if they would use it. Home educators are certain to find it an invaluable addition to their library."
— Randall Murphree, American Family Association

"Masterfully edited by Gamble, [this] is a unique anthology best described in the term given by Mortimer Adler years ago--conversation… 'Anticipating the objections of critics who allege that the classical and Christian traditions are not useful in the modern world, Gamble declares, The Great Tradition, in contrast, anchored in the classical and Christian humanism of liberal education, has taken the broader view that what is useful is that which helps men and women to flourish in nonmaterial ways as well--in other words, that which helps them to be happy…' If there is any hope for an educational Renaissance, especially within the liberal arts, it will have to occur with a sense of the authentic and primarily formative education exemplified by the readings in this book."
— Journal of the Faith and the Academy

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Richard M. Gamble is the Anna Margaret Ross Alexander Professor of History and Political Science and Associate Professor of History at Hillsdale College. He formerly taught in the Honors Program at Palm Beach Atlantic University and is the author of The War for Righteousness: Progressive Christianity, the Great War, and the Rise of the Messianic Nation (ISI Books, 2003).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 500 pages
• Publisher: Intercollegiate Studies Institute (September 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933859253
• ISBN-13: 978-1933859255
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.2 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,273,494 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the finest works of Christian Humanist scholarship, February 18, 2008

By 

Bradley J. Birzer - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Great Tradition: Classic Readings on What it Means to Be an Educated Human Being (Hardcover)

One of the finest works of Christian Humanist scholarship to come out in the last decade, Dr. Gamble's new book, The Great Tradition, should open forgotten but vital realms of the past to the modern reader. Expertly chosen selections--forming the narrative and educational backbone of western civilization--pull the past, the present, and the future back into continuity. Dr. Gamble lovingly and painstakingly introduces us to a vast treasury of wisdom from Plato, Cicero, Seneca, Tacitus, St. Augustine, St. Gregory the Great, John of Salisbury, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Bonaventure, Petrarch, Melanchthon, John Calvin, Edmund Burke, Cardinal Newman, Paul Elmer More, T.S. Eliot, and Christopher Dawson, to name just a few of the authors. Truly, Gamble ably demonstrates, one can find a direct line of thought and a continuing conversation transcending the generations about the most vital questions regarding the nature, limitations, and potential of our humanity. Indeed, Gamble, a true scholar and gentleman, understands liberal education in its proper sense. A proper education liberates the human person from the tyranny of the moment, allowing him to see the wisdom of the human race across time, the cardinal virtues, and the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. Most importantly, an educated person sees behind all of these things the One who made them each not only possible but also desirable.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended, especially for public and college libraries., November 3, 2007

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Great Tradition: Classic Readings on What it Means to Be an Educated Human Being (Hardcover)

Historian Richard M. Gamble edits The Great Tradition: Classic Readings on What It Means to be an Educated Human Being is an anthology of essays written by great figures throughout history concerning what it truly means to be educated. Since ancient times, the Great Tradition has described education as the hard work the human soul undergoes in order to better understand itself and its maker. Individual writings quote Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, John Calvin, C.S. Lewis, T.S. Eliot, and many other historical, literary, religious, and scientific figures concerning the goals and true value of education. Each selection is prefaced by a brief yet insightful commentary about the author's life and identity, as well as comments about the selection itself and why it was chosen. The result is a cohesive picture offering much-needed insights into the ever-evolving education system, its purpose and its needs, particularly in today's era of debate concerning public schools and the rise of homeschooling. Highly recommended, especially for public and college libraries.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Great Tradition, November 30, 2007

By 

G. L. Gregg (Louisville, Kentucky) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Great Tradition: Classic Readings on What it Means to Be an Educated Human Being (Hardcover)

Richard Gamble has accomplished a Herculean task that we should hope bears fruit worthy of his efforts. Between the covers of this large, but very moderately priced book, is the distillation of thousands of years of thinking about education and what it is to be an educated human being. Every parent, teacher, and educational administrator who is truly concerned about educating our youth, would do well to have this book at hand. Let us hope Gamble's work becomes the inspiration for a new wave of educational reform in America that undoes some of the most damaging trends of the 20th century.