Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation
Written by Roosevelt Montás
Narrated by Roosevelt Montás
5/5
()
About this audiobook
This audiobook narrated by Dominican-born scholar Roosevelt Montás tells the story of how the Great Books transformed his life—and why they have the power to speak to people of all backgrounds
What is the value of a liberal education? Traditionally characterized by a rigorous engagement with the classics of Western thought and literature, this approach to education is all but extinct in American universities, replaced by flexible distribution requirements and ever-narrower academic specialization. Many academics attack the very idea of a Western canon as chauvinistic, while the general public increasingly doubts the value of the humanities. In Rescuing Socrates, Dominican-born American academic Roosevelt Montás tells the story of how a liberal education transformed his life, and offers an intimate account of the relevance of the Great Books today, especially to members of historically marginalized communities.
Montás emigrated from the Dominican Republic to Queens, New York, when he was twelve and encountered the Western classics as an undergraduate in Columbia University’s renowned Core Curriculum, one of America’s last remaining Great Books programs. The experience changed his life and determined his career—he went on to earn a PhD in English and comparative literature, serve as director of Columbia’s Center for the Core Curriculum, and start a Great Books program for low-income high school students who aspire to be the first in their families to attend college.
Weaving together memoir and literary reflection, Rescuing Socrates describes how four authors—Plato, Augustine, Freud, and Gandhi—had a profound impact on Montás’s life. In doing so, the book drives home what it’s like to experience a liberal education—and why it can still remake lives.
Related to Rescuing Socrates
Related audiobooks
The Ideas That Made America: A Brief History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The End of Solitude: Selected Essays on Culture and Society Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMaking History: The Storytellers Who Shaped the Past Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Stranger than Fiction: The Art of Literary Journalism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Education: A Very Short Introduction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Polymath: A Cultural History from Leonardo da Vinci to Susan Sontag Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Transcendentalists and Their World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Are What You Read: A Practical Guide to Reading Well Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be - Second Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Read and Why Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Care About Animals: An Ancient Guide to Creatures Great and Small Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Seven Myths About Education Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Hedgehog and the Fox: An Essay on Tolstoy's View of History - Second Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Twenty-five Books That Shaped America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Curiosity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs To Know Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why We Are Restless: On the Modern Quest for Contentment Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Emile or On Education Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCultural Amnesia: Notes in the Margin of My Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How We Think Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHenry at Work: Thoreau on Making a Living Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Think like Shakespeare: Lessons from a Renaissance Education Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Why Knowledge Matters: Rescuing Our Children from Failed Educational Theories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What Universities Owe Democracy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhen Can You Trust the Experts?: How to Tell Good Science from Bad in Education Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sick Souls, Healthy Minds: How William James Can Save Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Literature in our Lives: Talking About Texts from Shakespeare to Philip Pullman Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Teaching Methods & Materials For You
The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Smart but Scattered Teens: The "Executive Skills" Program for Helping Teens Reach Their Potential Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Taking Charge of ADHD: The Complete, Authoritative Guide for Parents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Learn Spanish While Sleeping Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Permission to Feel: Unlocking the Power of Emotions to Help Our Kids, Ourselves, and Our Society Thrive Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Financial Feminist: Overcome the Patriarchy’s Bullsh*t to Master Your Money and Build a Life You Love Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 50th Anniversary Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Elements of Style Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fluent in 3 Months: How Anyone at Any Age Can Learn to Speak Any Language from Anywhere in the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 16 Undeniable Laws of Communication: Apply Them and Make the Most of Your Message Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Raising Human Beings: Creating a Collaborative Partnership with Your Child Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary: The Laws of Human Nature: by Robert Greene: Key Takeaways, Summary & Analysis Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary of The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lies My Teacher Told Me for Young Readers: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Battle for the American Mind: Uprooting a Century of Miseducation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 5 Love Languages of Teenagers: The Secret to Loving Teens Effectively Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Teaching Children: All I Learned from a Lifetime in the Classroom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Everyday Spanish for Beginners - 400 Actions & Activities Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Defining Moments in Black History: Reading Between the Lies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pound The Stone: 7 Lessons to Develop Grit on the Path to Mastery Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher, 4th Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Rescuing Socrates
2 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is one of the most meaningful books to read if one is reflective and concerned about how young people being educated today will frame their futures and the future of the country and world. Narrow self interest is a failure from the outset. Having more depth of insight that goes into one’s decision-making might lead to wiser choices and more honorable approaches to how the US behaves in a complicated country and world. Roosevelt Montás is not only steeped in useful and enduring knowledge, he is tuned in to how students operate, and is sensitive to what they need to be ready for life. Amazing writer, amazing book.