What benefits are there in studying the liberal arts or humanities? In an age of technology, commerce, and materialism, the liberal arts often find themselves beleaguered by the dominant idea that all education should constitute a form of training for the job market, that it be instrumental in making each of us an economic unit in the interests only of wealth accumulation and production. The resulting cultural deficits cannot be quantified, but they are not negligible. This collection of essays, speeches, talks, and other occasional writings begins by trying to answer the question. But there’s more here than the opening piece. The collection encompasses other subjects as well, some public and cultural, and others that are the private experience of the author, including a series of pieces that describe his impressions of returning to the land of his birth after an absence of more than sixty years. John Xiros Cooper spent over thirty-five years as a university professor of English literature. He is a scholar, teacher, and writer and this collection of mainly unpublished works supplement his published scholarship in books, articles, and chapters. Personal reflection, public utterance, and open engagement with the issues of this world make this a collection that will make you think. Some of the pieces may also touch your heart.
