Idealism and Liberal Education

by James O. Freedman

Book Overview

With refreshing eloquence, James O. Freedman sets down the American ideals that have informed his life as an intellectual, a law professor, and a college and university president. He examines the content and character of liberal education, discusses the importance of letters and learning in forming his own life and values, and explores how the lessons and the habits of mind instilled by a liberal education can give direction and meaning to one's life...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0472106929
• ISBN13: 9780472106929
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: University of Michigan Press
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.4" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Joys of a Liberal Academic of the Highest Order

What a delight to wander, in these many essays, through some fascinating zones within this great academic's mind. Freedman was President of both Dartmouth Universty and the University of Iowa; and was both University Ombudsman and Law Dean at the Universtiy of Pennsylvania. He truly knows whereof he speaks. Here, instead of advocacy, he shares perspectives and joys of his life as a scholar and prominent liberal thinker -- reflecting wonderfully on both the scholarly life and on liberalism (so often unthinkingly maligned in these times the absolutism by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter). As a book collector myself (though hardly on Freedman's scale!), I am particularly fascinated by his essay on the pleasures of collecting books!