A Do-It-Yourself Liberal Education

Commentary by Charles Lipson at Real Clear Politics.

"Clifton] Fadiman and others, like Encyclopædia Britannica, which published the Great Books, revealed a great truth: With a little guidance, you can do a lot to educate yourself, and you can do it at any age. Fadiman’s Lifetime Reading Plan does that. The Kirkus review of the first edition captures its flavor well:

'[Fadiman] sees, in the books and writers he has chosen, the tools not only of self-enhancement but of self-discovery. … This is not a reading plan for the scholar, but for 'everyman' -- the high school student who can go no farther in formal education, the college graduate who has bypassed the treasures of literature, the average layman who is reasonably literate, but needs a refresher on things half experienced in the past.'

"'With its snappy introductions to each work, the book is 'a project that captures the imagination and fires the ambition,' in the reviewer’s words."

#education