Product Description

Find a college teacher prepared to risk his career because he is convinced that undergraduate elective curricula must be abandoned and ready to lay out a detailed remedy. Add a partner in full agreement, to share the risk. That is the improbable story of Stringfellow Barr and Scott Buchanan and their 1937 creation, at St. John's College of an all-required four-year curriculum based on the great books. Then add their shared convictions in attacking the Cold War, standing together for civil liberties and against McCarthyism. This story of personal courage is based on Nelson's knowledge and access to unpublished manuscripts and hundreds of letters.

Nelson tells the story of a remarkable life-long friendship and collaboration. He describes the 1937 transformation of St. John's College in Annapolis, in which an all-required, four-year program of study built around the great books of the Western tradition, the study of languages, mathematics, and science replaced the c…