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The Bedside Baccalaureate: A Handy Daily Cerebral Primer to Fill in the Gaps, Refresh Your Knowledge & Impress Yourself & Other Intellectuals
Many adults long to make up for an education they either never had or that seemed somehow lacking. Now they can fill in the gaps right at home with The Bedside Baccalaureate series, which speaks directly to this grown-up thirst for knowledge. Filled with color images, extremely readable, and with an appealing presentation, it provides a fun, no-pressure experience that everyone will enjoy.
The goal of The Bedside Baccalaureate is not the simple accumulation of trivia, but the placement of facts within the framework of knowledge. The 20 courses—focused overviews of subjects with which any well-educated person would want to be familiar—are created by experts in their fields with the intention of making the topics accessible and entertaining. Each course consists of 18 one-page lectures that maximize clarity without compromising the integrity of the ideas. The lectures are rotated, rather than clumped together, to add variety to the reading experience and to mimic the heady mix of subjects one encounters in the world of the intellect. You can dip into an assortment of areas by reading a page at a time; or, if a course really grabs you, you can skip ahead. Learning is contagious—once you get started, it’s difficult to stop.
The courses are associated with one of 12 departmental “strands” as follows:
Two courses each per volume
•American History
•Philosophy
•World History
•Economics
•English and Comparative Literature
•Classics
•Art History
•Environmental Science
•Mathematics and Engineering
•Physical Sciences
•Social Science
The goal of The Bedside Baccalaureate is not the simple accumulation of trivia, but the placement of facts within the framework of knowledge. The 20 courses—focused overviews of subjects with which any well-educated person would want to be familiar—are created by experts in their fields with the intention of making the topics accessible and entertaining. Each course consists of 18 one-page lectures that maximize clarity without compromising the integrity of the ideas. The lectures are rotated, rather than clumped together, to add variety to the reading experience and to mimic the heady mix of subjects one encounters in the world of the intellect. You can dip into an assortment of areas by reading a page at a time; or, if a course really grabs you, you can skip ahead. Learning is contagious—once you get started, it’s difficult to stop.
The courses are associated with one of 12 departmental “strands” as follows:
Two courses each per volume
•American History
•Philosophy
•World History
•Economics
•English and Comparative Literature
•Classics
•Art History
•Environmental Science
•Mathematics and Engineering
•Physical Sciences
•Social Science
400 pages, Hardcover
First published October 7, 2008
48 people are currently reading
410 people want to read
About the author
David Rubel
43 books4 followersDavid Rubel has made a career of bringing history alive for readers of all ages.
Recognized nationally as an author, speaker, and historian, David has written fifteen books and edited a dozen more during his twenty-five years in publishing. Most of these titles focus on making American history accessible to a broad audience. Working with many of the country’s finest historians—including Pulitzer Prize–winners Joseph J. Ellis and James M. McPherson and Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein—David has created enduring books that make first-rate scholarship understandable and compelling.
David’s most recent book, If I Had a Hammer: Building Homes and Hope with Habitat for Humanity, features a collaboration with President Jimmy Carter. Folk legend Pete Seeger, whose classic song gave the book its title, calls If I Had a Hammer “an inspiring book, telling how ideas starting on a little farm in Georgia have grown to a worldwide movement.”
Adults and children alike have embraced David’s work. The Indianapolis Star has called The Coming Free: The Struggle for African-American Equality “a magnificent accounting of the civil rights activism of blacks” with a visual presentation that is “stunning and memorable.” His children’s books The Scholastic Encyclopedia of the Presidents and Their Times and The Scholastic Atlas of the United States have both become grade-school standards, selling more than half a million copies each in multiple editions.
As the president of Agincourt Press, a book production company in Chatham, New York, David works with his wife and partner, Julia Rubel, to conceive and develop projects for numerous publishers. Some of these he writes himself; others, he edits. For all, he coordinates the text, image research, and graphic design so that the narratives leap off the page.
A 1983 graduate of Columbia University, where he was sports editor of the Columbia Daily Spectator, David began his career as a correspondent for the Pacific News Service, covering everything from rock music to street gangs. He then worked as an editorial assistant at HarperCollins before becoming a freelance writer and editor. In 1990, David founded Agincourt Press in New York City. From 1994 until 2001, he served as president of the American Book Producers Association. In 1996, he moved his company from Manhattan to Chatham, a rural community in New York’s Hudson River Valley, where he now lives with his wife and two children.
David appears regularly on television and radio to discuss his work, especially as it relates to the American presidents. Concise biographies of the presidents that he recorded to support the publication of To the Best of My Ability: The American Presidents were syndicated to public radio stations nationwide and ran several times daily during the six weeks leading up to the 2000 election.
David speaks widely on history and presidential politics. He has lectured at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., the Carter Center in Atlanta and at numerous schools and institutions.
Recognized nationally as an author, speaker, and historian, David has written fifteen books and edited a dozen more during his twenty-five years in publishing. Most of these titles focus on making American history accessible to a broad audience. Working with many of the country’s finest historians—including Pulitzer Prize–winners Joseph J. Ellis and James M. McPherson and Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein—David has created enduring books that make first-rate scholarship understandable and compelling.
David’s most recent book, If I Had a Hammer: Building Homes and Hope with Habitat for Humanity, features a collaboration with President Jimmy Carter. Folk legend Pete Seeger, whose classic song gave the book its title, calls If I Had a Hammer “an inspiring book, telling how ideas starting on a little farm in Georgia have grown to a worldwide movement.”
Adults and children alike have embraced David’s work. The Indianapolis Star has called The Coming Free: The Struggle for African-American Equality “a magnificent accounting of the civil rights activism of blacks” with a visual presentation that is “stunning and memorable.” His children’s books The Scholastic Encyclopedia of the Presidents and Their Times and The Scholastic Atlas of the United States have both become grade-school standards, selling more than half a million copies each in multiple editions.
As the president of Agincourt Press, a book production company in Chatham, New York, David works with his wife and partner, Julia Rubel, to conceive and develop projects for numerous publishers. Some of these he writes himself; others, he edits. For all, he coordinates the text, image research, and graphic design so that the narratives leap off the page.
A 1983 graduate of Columbia University, where he was sports editor of the Columbia Daily Spectator, David began his career as a correspondent for the Pacific News Service, covering everything from rock music to street gangs. He then worked as an editorial assistant at HarperCollins before becoming a freelance writer and editor. In 1990, David founded Agincourt Press in New York City. From 1994 until 2001, he served as president of the American Book Producers Association. In 1996, he moved his company from Manhattan to Chatham, a rural community in New York’s Hudson River Valley, where he now lives with his wife and two children.
David appears regularly on television and radio to discuss his work, especially as it relates to the American presidents. Concise biographies of the presidents that he recorded to support the publication of To the Best of My Ability: The American Presidents were syndicated to public radio stations nationwide and ran several times daily during the six weeks leading up to the 2000 election.
David speaks widely on history and presidential politics. He has lectured at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., the Carter Center in Atlanta and at numerous schools and institutions.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 16, 2014
20 courses in 18 one-page entries, arranged into 4 syllabi rotating history, science, art, philosophy, etc. Some quite interesting, some deadly dull or beyond my interest or ability to absorb. Arts, literature & history were interesting. Philosophy and some sciences difficult.
Syllabus 1: for American history, General Grant's Civil War; for economics, globalization; for art history, the Hudson River School; for physical sciences, the astronomical universe; for classics, myths of ancient Greece.
Syllabus 2: for literature, Emerson and Transcendentalism; for physical science, the history of the Earth; for world history, Revolutionary France; for math and engineering, the search for alternative energies; for religion, schools of Buddhist thought.
Syllabus 3: for math & engineering, rocket science; for social sciences the worldview of Karl Marx; for art history, the Impressionists; for social sciences, human origins; for world history, the Holocaust in Europe.
Syllabus 4: for American history, the Civil Rights movement; for philosophy, Empiricism; for physical sciences, Einstein and relativity; for religion, the sects of Islam; for literature, masterworks of Imperial Russia.
I did okay through Syllabus 3, but I bogged down in Syllabus 4 with Empiricism, relativity and the sects of Islam. I had a hard time remembering what I just read, much less keeping the continuity going from lesson to lesson.
Syllabus 1: for American history, General Grant's Civil War; for economics, globalization; for art history, the Hudson River School; for physical sciences, the astronomical universe; for classics, myths of ancient Greece.
Syllabus 2: for literature, Emerson and Transcendentalism; for physical science, the history of the Earth; for world history, Revolutionary France; for math and engineering, the search for alternative energies; for religion, schools of Buddhist thought.
Syllabus 3: for math & engineering, rocket science; for social sciences the worldview of Karl Marx; for art history, the Impressionists; for social sciences, human origins; for world history, the Holocaust in Europe.
Syllabus 4: for American history, the Civil Rights movement; for philosophy, Empiricism; for physical sciences, Einstein and relativity; for religion, the sects of Islam; for literature, masterworks of Imperial Russia.
I did okay through Syllabus 3, but I bogged down in Syllabus 4 with Empiricism, relativity and the sects of Islam. I had a hard time remembering what I just read, much less keeping the continuity going from lesson to lesson.
December 26, 2015
Nice way to find out about a variety of subjects and to refresh your knowledge.
June 10, 2017
Nice review of a variety of different topics, some more interesting and well written than others.
September 19, 2016
This is a most interesting approach for a book and not quite what I was expecting to be honest. The book is divided into 5 "courses" and each one covers 5 different topics from astronomy to art history and each of those has around a dozen one page "lessons". However the content is laid out as a one pager on subject 1, then 2,3,4 and 5 before going back to 1-5 again. This is repeated until the end of the chapter, then the next chapter is similarly structured but with different topics.
There is no doubt that much of this material is interesting, and one pagers are a good way to take it in but it does have the downside of peaking interest then leaving the subject. Of course, you can read all the lessons on one subject and then go back to the next but this requires a lot of page turning and was still disjointed in my experience.
So, I am not sure this is a great way to approach this, however novel, although it made an interesting read. I actually think that this is somewhat detrimental to retaining the material though, at least it was in my case. There is a lot of material here too and the lessons are well written, leaning slightly more towards academic language than to popular writing. Not sure I would read a similar book (and the intro talks about other volumes coming) but I am glad I tried it.
There is no doubt that much of this material is interesting, and one pagers are a good way to take it in but it does have the downside of peaking interest then leaving the subject. Of course, you can read all the lessons on one subject and then go back to the next but this requires a lot of page turning and was still disjointed in my experience.
So, I am not sure this is a great way to approach this, however novel, although it made an interesting read. I actually think that this is somewhat detrimental to retaining the material though, at least it was in my case. There is a lot of material here too and the lessons are well written, leaning slightly more towards academic language than to popular writing. Not sure I would read a similar book (and the intro talks about other volumes coming) but I am glad I tried it.
July 31, 2016
20 Subjects, 18 Lectures on each subject...
I am enjoying this book! It is educational as long as you keep in Mind that each lecture has a unique perspective on the subject matter. This is not an encyclopedia. It is a healthy sampling of opinions on each subject matter. I love the format as I have always known opinions are just That! Opinions.
As my motto says... "It's always a matter of opinion".
I am enjoying this book! It is educational as long as you keep in Mind that each lecture has a unique perspective on the subject matter. This is not an encyclopedia. It is a healthy sampling of opinions on each subject matter. I love the format as I have always known opinions are just That! Opinions.
As my motto says... "It's always a matter of opinion".
December 30, 2011
A good book for learning about the History of the world
and facts about certain things such as rocket science,
The Holocaust, Einstein, The Civil Rights Movement, etc.
I give it 4/5 stars.
and facts about certain things such as rocket science,
The Holocaust, Einstein, The Civil Rights Movement, etc.
I give it 4/5 stars.
June 14, 2011
I enjoyed this book. It took almost a year to finish it but it was worth it. I learned a lot and also refreshed mu memory of past events. On to Semester two!
March 4, 2012
There are better books out there on the subjects covered. Some of the writers were good some were so bad I ended up skipping a bit.
February 9, 2012
Darnell really liked this 2 volume series. He does not really enjoy reading so I count this as a success!
January 21, 2014
Lots and lots and lots and lots of facts!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews