Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Palgrave Macmillan

The Dream of a Democratic Culture

Mortimer J. Adler and the Great Books Idea

  • Book
  • © 2013

Overview

Authors:
  1. Tim Lacy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (10 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Tim Lacy
    Pages 1-17

  3. The Great Books Movement, 1920–1948

    • Tim Lacy
    Pages 19-36

  4. Branding the History of Ideas: Adler, Lovejoy, and Britannica’s Great Books, 1943–1952

    • Tim Lacy
    Pages 37-62

  5. Making “Seventy-Four Corpses … Pay Off”: The Context and Commerce of the Great Books, 1952–1968

    • Tim Lacy
    Pages 63-80

  6. “Mixing Vice and Virtue”: Adler, Britannica’s Cottage Industry, and Mid-Century Anxiety

    • Tim Lacy
    Pages 81-100

  7. The Common Sense of Great Books Liberalism, 1965–1970

    • Tim Lacy
    Pages 101-128

  8. Diminished Dreams: Great Books in an Age of Crisis, Fracture, and Transition, 1968–1977

    • Tim Lacy
    Pages 129-158

  9. “The Poobah of Popularizers”: Paideia, Pluralism, and the Culture Wars, 1978–1988

    • Tim Lacy
    Pages 159-189

  10. “The Most Rancorous Cultural War”: Bloom, Adler, Stanford, and Britannica, 1988–2001

    • Tim Lacy
    Pages 191-219

  11. Coda and Conclusion: Lessons for the Twenty-First Century

    • Tim Lacy
    Pages 221-228

  12. Back Matter

    Pages 229-324
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

This book presents a moderately revisionist history of the great books idea anchored in the following movements and struggles: fighting anti-intellectualism, advocating for the liberal arts, distributing cultural capital, and promoting a public philosophy, anchored in mid-century liberalism, that fostered a shared civic culture.

Reviews

to come

About the author

Tim Lacy has a PhD in American History from Loyola University Chicago, USA, where he is currently employed. He has taught history at Monmouth College, USA, and several Chicago-area colleges and universities.

Bibliographic Information

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation