Good day. Enjoyed your introduction to Hutchins. He is from the generation of writers who read widely and thought deeply about their books. When you talked about him I thought about one of the best in the U.S., Edmund Wilson, whose comprehensive knowledge about a subject was remarkable. I agree with everything you said about the relevance and importance of great books. Now, how to get someone to read them for the sake of doing so is another matter. And a deeper problem is literacy. One must be a curious, patient, and dedicated reader in order to get through any of the great books, and come to terms with their literacy. I think that is the challenge.

I know this video is a bit older, but if anyone here is a homeschooler, this set of books is part of a collection which includes "The Great Ideas" Program books (set of 10) by Mortimer Adler and the "Gateway to the Great Books," (set of 10, color coded, prequel to the GBWW series) which is a series designed to train readers to become more active and effective before they tackle some of the denser material in the GBWW series. The whole 3-part collection is intended for high-school and up (Hutchins states explicitly the GGB books should be easily understood by the average 16-year old) and is a nice transition for anyone who is using the "Great Illustrated Classics" young readers book series, which makes classic imaginative literature more accessible to younger readers.

Thank you for your discussion about Hutchins and this set of books! Have you read "A Great Idea at the Time: The Rise, Fall, and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books" by Alex Beam? I feel as though it is a well-researched discussion about this set of books. As for your discussion questions, thank you for fostering conversation! When I first read this particular volume of the set nearly twenty years ago (as a young man in my twenties), I was absolutely floored by how prescient Hutchins' concerns were for their time, seeing as though the postmodern criticism that occurred in the time in between his time and mine seems to have fostered a contemporary belief that the very notion of a cannon of Western thought is an affront to intellectual development. Of course every generation suffers from the sort of nostalgia-stricken malaise that has older folks bemoaning the fallen state of "kids these days". But what I feel Hutchins was pointing to was something deeper; he feared the American enterprise of fostering an educated citizenry. In many ways, I feel as though he and Adler saw this set of books as the University of Chicago's best chance at reaching a large enough segment of the population of their time in an effort to stave off what they perceived as the post-war, postmodernism dismantling of academic authority - at least in so far as it pertained to academia's role in making such statements for each successive generation. Reconsidering Hutchins' (and Adler's) writings in this set with you now, at a time in my life much more weighted with the influence of the internet than it was when I first read them, has me wondering what they would have had to say about these states of affair today!

As someone who recently picked up reading again and discovering the GBWW Set and is currently working my way through it. I can say with confidence that the educational system we have today is a great failure. I, being in my late twenties, feel as though I was robbed of these treasure troves, but I am happy to have still discovered this set.

Hadn’t heard of this series- not sure it came across the pond, but interested to hear more.