false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255628085m/4101425.jpg 4101425 1 Today the classics of the western canon, written by the proverbial &#8220;dead white men,&#8221; are cannon fodder in the culture wars. But in the 1950s and 1960s, they were a pop culture phenomenon. The Great Books of Western Civilization, fifty-four volumes chosen by intellectuals at the University of Chicago, began as an educational movement, and evolved into a successful marketing idea. Why did a million American households buy books by Hippocrates and Nicomachus from door-to-door salesmen? And how and why did the great books fall out of fashion? <P>In <I>A Great Idea at the Time</I> Alex Beam explores the Great Books mania, in an entertaining and strangely poignant portrait of American popular culture on the threshold of the television age. Populated with memorable characters, <I>A Great Idea at the Time</I> will leave readers asking themselves: Have I read Lucretius&#8217;s <I>De Rerum Natura</I> lately? If not, why not?</DIV> 4148584 3 11 2008 A Great Idea at the Time: The Rise, Fall, and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books total:51|5:4|4:19|3:18|2:8|1:2| 51 168 188 31 2 1 false false Sun Dec 28 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 06 19:31:36 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 29 12:39:14 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sun Jan 11 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Dec 12 10:22:44 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 11 13:36:15 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 1 true false Mon Jan 05 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Dec 27 12:33:34 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 06 18:31:31 -0800 2009
Mr. Beam isn't writing directly about the Great Books. Instead he is writing about the Great Books movement, a sort of fetishistic devotion to the Great Books.

The book follows the lives and careers of the t...more...]]> 3 1 false false Sun Dec 21 19:25:24 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 09 13:10:25 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Sep 17 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Mar 29 20:48:50 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 29 20:49:22 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Nov 09 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 13 06:29:23 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 13 06:32:51 -0800 2009
In "A Great Idea at the Time," Alex Beam breezily tells the story of the Great Books of the Western World, which once promised everyone, from Joe Sixpack to the chairman of the board, the education of a lifetime. Published in 1952 by the Encyclop...more...]]> 2 0 false false Sun Nov 08 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Nov 12 10:12:55 -0800 2009 Thu Nov 12 10:15:17 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Jan 08 06:00:15 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 08 06:00:15 -0800 2009 Great Books of the Western World being printed in faux leather and in nearly unreadable type, as well as his characterization of Mortimer Adler as a “Hobbit.” Reviewers also con...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 26 14:32:26 -0800 2009 Mon Mar 16 10:14:39 -0700 2009 Hegel volume of my grandparents' set of Great Books when I was in high school and found it utterly impenetrable. But that impenetrability made me even more interested in philosophy, given my perverse interest in things esoteric.

This book reads like a secret history o...more...]]> 0 0 false false Sun Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Nov 16 06:02:20 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 16 06:05:28 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Feb 21 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 07 14:21:08 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 01 05:53:23 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Dec 17 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 08 08:20:26 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 18 07:48:19 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Nov 20 04:36:26 -0800 2008 Thu Nov 20 04:40:27 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Feb 12 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 14 09:52:00 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 14 09:54:28 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Mon Dec 15 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Apr 13 16:03:25 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 13 16:05:33 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 14 06:42:36 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 14 06:50:26 -0800 2009 2 0 false false Mon Feb 23 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 18 18:02:15 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 23 20:19:36 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Wed Jun 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun May 31 11:09:01 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 10 17:39:33 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Mon Jan 26 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Apr 14 20:18:42 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 14 20:20:52 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 16 19:53:10 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 16 19:55:03 -0800 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=4101425