For 2024, my book count dropped again, to rather low levels. This is also because the books are big: Thucydides, and especially Gibbon, are long, slow reads. In regular book format, Gibbon chapters 1-40 would probably be about 1300 pages. (I am reading the Great Books of the Western World edition, which is so tightly printed that there are actually two columns per page.) Gibbon is great fun, and certainly worthwhile. You have to read it quite slowly to follow the narrative, and catch the significance. I would sometimes read aloud, by myself.
For 2025, I plan to continue with Durant’s Story of Civilization (#4, The Age of Faith); read the political works of Plato, Aristotle and Cicero; and continue with the Harvard Classics of Fiction, where the next step is Hugo’s Notre Dame de Paris. I think I will take a little break from Gibbon, but will follow up later with his tale of the fate of the Byzantine Empire. This doesn’t seem like too much of an agenda — only one big book, not three as in 2024 — but I think it will still be enough to exclude a list of more contemporary works that I would like to read, or other works of economics, which were light this year.
Not everyone needs to undertake this kind of intensive “liberal arts” education. I think the effort to spread this kind of education to the masses, after 1950, was mostly a failure. It is an exclusive club, and you should already know if you are in it, because you want to be in it. But, we should have a few people who are educated to this degree. In the past, it was maybe 5% of the male population. Before 1940, most Americans ended their formal education at Eighth Grade, and began an apprenticeship. Today, it is far less than 5%, maybe one in a thousand, since nothing of value is being taught in universities anymore, besides vocational training, and even that is becoming a little iffy. Yes, you can take courses in Government or History or Literature at a university. But, 95% of University professors are self-described Leftists and Democrats. Some elite colleges have no professed Republicans. If they were any good at teaching these courses, they wouldn’t be Leftists.
Here’s the ratio of registered Democrats to registered Republicans in elite-level colleges:
Everybody knows this, which is why nobody signs up for those courses anymore. This graph only goes to 2015. It would be interesting to see how it has developed since then.
Here we go:
These are degrees granted, which means there is a lag of 2-3 years from when majors are decided on. I think the downslope has probably steepened since then.
Or this:
I agree with this completely. The fact of the matter is, even if you wanted to study the Liberal Arts, professors like Allan Bloom are no longer available. He was a 1960s anachronism even in the 1980s. Forget about these corrupt institutions. You have to do it on your own, or perhaps use a short list of mostly-Christian colleges. I would use Hillsdale College’s online courses, if you want some lectures to go with your reading. They really are quite good.
Most popular recent majors:
You can see what I mean when I say that Universities are mostly engaged in Vocational Training at this time. The Liberal Arts today mostly exist due to graduation requirements for students with other majors. Personally, I think this is a bad idea. Just let people get their Vocational Training without low-value Leftist Indoctrination. And then, leave the true Liberal Arts for those colleges, and those students, who want that. The first “Liberal Arts” major on this list is #17, Political Science, at 1.30% of students. But, I wouldn’t study Political Science at a typical Leftist university. You will just get an indoctrination in Socialism.
On the other hand:
This kind of formal education, which I am describing here, is really for the elite. The non-elite can also take part, but perhaps more informally, and not so intensively, in your free time. It does not exclude Vocational Training either. Typically, some kind of vocational training would follow on later, after a Liberal Arts education. This might be Law or Business, formalized in Law School or Business School. Or, it might be “on the job training.” The Chad Liberal Arts Major, as we all know, becomes an investment banker, consultant-later-upper corporate management, or perhaps an entrepreneur. One of the reasons to study the Liberal Arts in Age 18-21 is because, by Age 23-30, you are focusing on career and maybe family, and have little time or energy for such things. The more technologically-oriented students, who have a natural talent and interest in engineering and science, should probably stick to that focus also at the undergraduate level, with a little bit of Liberal Arts added. Just read some good books, at least five per year. This is best done in your free time, with school focused on technical matters. Get to the point where you can enjoy the plays of Shakespeare. Watch a video of a live performance. Read some poetry — such as the Harvard Classics’ three-volume anthology. Just a page or two, here or there. Learn to love Ballet and Opera, of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, again through DVDs. It’s just pretty dancing women, and some good music, so it isn’t hard. But, you will come to understand why we do this.
“Liberal Arts” are not just an excuse to goof off. What if you brought the same kind of dedication and effort that people bring to engineering? Try reading the entire 50-volume Harvard Classics in the space of a single year — one book a week, for 50 weeks. These are dense books. This is the kind of education that Thomas Jefferson or John Adams got — for them, also mostly not at a university, but on their own. If you spend four years focusing on Liberal Arts Education, try to accomplish as much as you can in those four years. It won’t be enough anyway.
Guy Mannering, by Walter Scott
The Intelligent Investor, by Benjamin Graham
The Landmark Thucydides, ed. Robert B. Strassler
Harvard Classics of Fiction #10: American Fiction
The Story of Civilization #3: Caesar and Christ, by Will Durant
Occult Feminism: The Secret History of Women’s Liberation, by Rachel Wilson
Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future, by Fr. Seraphim Rose
Specialization and Trade, by Arnold Kling
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Chapters 1-40), by Edward Gibbon
