“Along with greenness and wonder of a country boy, I landed at JFK International Airport with a head full of lice and a belly full of tropical parasites. In many respects, I was an unlikely candidate for the Ivy League.” (p. 5)
Roosevelt Montas, a Dominican-born immigrant who lands in Queens, New York poor but eager to learn, finds a stack of books put out in front a brownstone for Garbage Day. Amazed that Americans would throw books away, Months picks up two books from the stack: one by Socrates, one by Shakespeare. Surprisingly, the book by Socrates unleashes a need in Montas to go to college. Columbia University accepts Mantas and he goes through the Great Books program when students read a classic book every week.
Although Mantas loved most of the Great Books–except for Aristotle–he focuses on the impact reading Saint Augustine, Socrates, Freud, and Gandi had on him. Behind the descriptions of these classic works, Mantas defends the idea that college students should read Great Books and not just study the subjects that will get them jobs when they graduate.
When I was teaching, I would slip some Great Books into my syllabi–Dicken’s Bleak House and Hard Times were favorites of my students–but most professors just stick to their subject matter and don’t attempt to expand the curriculum.
Roosevelt Montas, from 2008-2018, was director of Columbia’s Center for the Core Curriculum. He advocated for the Great Books he admires. Rescuing Socrates is a love letter to readers who love these wonderful books. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction: The Case — 1
Chapter 1. Turning My Attention Back to Myself: Saint Augustine — 21
Chapter 2. The Examined Life: Socrates, Plato, and a Little Bit of Aristotle — 66
Chapter 3. Making Peace with the Unconscious: Freud — 113
Chapter 4. Truth Is God: Gandhi — 162
Epilogue: Nuts and Bolts — 210
Acknowledgments — 227
Index — 233
