Bonfire of the Humanities: Rescuing the Classics in an Impoverished Age

In Bonfire Of The Humanities: Rescuing The Classics In An Impoverished Age, Hanson, Heath, And Thornton Begin By Unsparingly Documenting The Degeneration Of Classics. They Also Reveal The Root Causes Of This Decline. They Point To Academics Themselves - Their Careerist Ambitions, Incessant Self-promotion, And Overspecialized, Inaccessible Work, Among Other Things - As The Source Of The Crisis, And Call For A Return To Academic Populism, A Method Charaterized By Approachable Writing, Selfless Commitment To Students And Teaching, And Respect For The Legacy Of Freedom And Democracy That The Ancients Bequeathed To The West.. The Authors Lay Out Detailed Proposals To Arrest The Decline In Humane Learning. These Proposals, And Especially Their Call For Professors To Embrace Academic Populism, Merit A Fair And Widespread Hearing. Bonfire Of The Humanities Should Be Read By Anyone Interested In A Sophisticated Yet Accessible Analysis Of The Root Problems Afflicting Academia And The Necessary Measures To Effect Recovery.--book Jacket. Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Academic Populism And The Assault On The Classics -- Part I: What We Should Not Be And Not Do. Cultivating Sophistry / Bruce S. Thornton -- Socrates Redux: Classics In The Multicultural University ? / John Heath -- Part Ii: Very Bad Theory. More Quarreling In The Muses' Birdcage / John Heath -- Too Much Ego In Your Cosmos / Victor Davis Hanson -- The Enemy Is Us: The Betrayal Of The Postmodern Clerks / Bruce S. Thornton -- Part Iii: Elitists, Careerists, And Assorted Opportunists. Self-promotion And The Crisis In Classics / John Heath -- Who Killed Homer?: The Prequel / Victor Davis Hanson & John Heath -- The Twilight Of The Professors / Bruce S. Thornton -- Not The Unabomber / John Heath. Victor Davis Hanson, John Heath, Bruce S. Thornton. 'notes': P. [335]-358. 'index': P. [359]-373. 'about The Authors': P. [374]. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [335]-358) And Index (p. [359]-373).