Smiling Through the Cultural Catastrophe: Toward the Revival of Higher EducationYale University Press, 2008 M10 1 - 286 pages Although the essential books of Western civilization are no longer central in our courses or in our thoughts, they retain their ability to energize us intellectually, says Jeffrey Hart in this powerful book. He now presents a guide to some of these literary works, tracing the main currents of Western culture for all who wish to understand the roots of their civilization and the basis for its achievements. Hart focuses on the productive tension between the classical and biblical strains in our civilization, between a life based on cognition and one based on faith and piety. He begins with the Iliad and Exodus, linking Achilles and Moses as Bronze Age heroic figures. Closely analysing texts and illuminating them in unexpected ways, he moves on to Socrates and Jesus, who internalized the heroic, continues with Paul and Augustine and their Christian synthesis, addresses Dante, Shakespeare's Hamlet, Moliere, and Voltaire, and concludes with the novel as represented by Crime and Punishment and The Great Gatsby. Hart maintains that the dialectical tensions suggested by this survey account for the restlessness and singular achievements of the West and that the essential books can provide the substance and energy currently missed by both students and educated readers. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 49
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... Western civilization can attempt to ''cover the facts.'' The most central, the one that goes furthest, I think, in covering the facts, has been called ''Athens and Jerusalem.'' As used in this way those two nouns refer simultaneously to ...
... Western civilization can attempt to ''cover the facts.'' The most central, the one that goes furthest, I think, in covering the facts, has been called ''Athens and Jerusalem.'' As used in this way those two nouns refer simultaneously to ...
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... Western civilization has answered this question not either-or but both-and, both Athens and Jerusalem. The interaction between Athens and Jerusalem has been a dynamic one, characterized by tension, attempted synthesis, and outright ...
... Western civilization has answered this question not either-or but both-and, both Athens and Jerusalem. The interaction between Athens and Jerusalem has been a dynamic one, characterized by tension, attempted synthesis, and outright ...
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... to claim distinctive excellences for Western civilization, will doubtless seem to many culturally unforgivable. But that is part of the catastrophe. Acknowledgments I wish to express my gratitude to Jacques Barzun, xii Preface.
... to claim distinctive excellences for Western civilization, will doubtless seem to many culturally unforgivable. But that is part of the catastrophe. Acknowledgments I wish to express my gratitude to Jacques Barzun, xii Preface.
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... Western civilization. Yet the idea of creative tension may also be applied to individual psychology. It may well be that thought itself, considered in its very nature, arises out of the experience of contradiction, that thought is the ...
... Western civilization. Yet the idea of creative tension may also be applied to individual psychology. It may well be that thought itself, considered in its very nature, arises out of the experience of contradiction, that thought is the ...
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... Western civilization, setting it o√ from other cultures and civilizations both past and present. Yet, as I have said, this is not part of the intellectual equipment of the educated reader, and neither professors nor their students ...
... Western civilization, setting it o√ from other cultures and civilizations both past and present. Yet, as I have said, this is not part of the intellectual equipment of the educated reader, and neither professors nor their students ...
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Smiling Through the Cultural Catastrophe: Toward the Revival of Higher Education Jeffrey Peter Hart No preview available - 2001 |
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Achilles actual ancient appear Athens Augustine become beginning Brunetto Latini called Canto century certainly chapter Christian civilization comes Commandment considered course culture Dante death di√erent Divine doubt Egyptian entire epic everything example existence Exodus experience fact figure first follow Gatsby Genesis give Greek Hamlet Hebrew hero heroic holiness Homer human idea important intellectual Israelites Jerusalem Jesus John killed King knowledge land later least live looked Lord magical meaning mind Moses move murder narrative never novel passage Paul perhaps philosophy pilgrim Plato play poem poet possible prince Raskolnikov reach reason reflection religious remains represents Roman scene seems seen sense Shakespeare society Socrates speak story student tell things thought tion tradition truth turned understand universe Virgil voice Voltaire Western whole writing written York