Brain Food
Hello LTS Alums and other readers. I am often asked to recommend books that offer deeper investigations of the topics we cover in LTS, so I thought I would finally get around to doing so. Of course I realize most of you are back in school, and your time for extra-curricular reading may be limited. I hope, however, that all of you will be able enjoy at least a few of these titles in the near future. The list is by no means exhaustive (there is so much wonderful stuff out there, despite the huge volume of garbage also available) and I am restricting my recommendation to non-fiction that I have actually read. (I do enjoy literature a great deal, but that is really a different kettle of fish.) Your recommendations are always welcome, of course.
Before I get down to the list, here are a few thoughts on learning and education:
CS Lewis remarked that he didn’t think God was any more pleased with intellectual laziness than any other kind of laziness, and Proverbs 25:2 reminds us that it is the glory of king to search out a matter. God gave us our minds to glorify Him. He wants us to use them, challenge them, stretch them and strengthen them even as we cooperate with His work of renewing them.
The fruit of godly wisdom is humility (James 3:13). I meant to emphasize this more in the Mindset session at LTS this year. This is a really easy way to tell if we are getting wiser or just more puffed up with trivia: are we becoming more humble? Truthfully, the more I learn, the more I realize how little I know. [Un-humble side note: have you ever noticed that there are some people with whom you simply cannot win a debate because they don’t know enough to know when they are beaten? Not that I am saying we should be debating all the time, or anything…] So while those of us that love books, ideas and other nerdy pursuits may find ourselves periodically challenged with know-it-allness, authentic humility is a sign that we’re actually learning something worthwhile.
Another thing I didn’t emphasize as much as I wanted to in the Mindset session: what is the purpose of education? You might remember there was a question on the survey we took that asked about whether the primary purpose of education was increasing one’s earning potential. I don’t think it is, especially before college. Now let me clarify that I think it is very, very important to have a plan for how you will make a living after graduation. I did not give this nearly enough thought during school (after I realized that I was NOT going to become a medical doctor, fortunately for the medical profession) and I am blessed far beyond what I deserve to be able to earn decent money while homeschooling my kids and serving my husband. My husband and I plan to hassle our kids into having smarter plans than we did. However, our articulated goal for our homeschooling program (which reflects our overall view of education) is to inspire and equip our children to be life-long independent scholars.
Building a little more on that thought, I’ve thought for a while that our culture has misunderstood the relationship between one’s profession and one’s source of intellectual stimulation. I think we assume that if we get a professional job it is supposed to stimulate us intellectually. I cannot tell you the number of doctors and lawyers I talk to (okay, really it’s around seven or eight) who are bored out of their minds. Sure they have to read for work, but it’s within such a narrow field: a particular tort or a new vaccine protocol. They thought they were signing up for a brain-bending adventure and what they got was the intellectual equivalent of working in a factory. Let me be clear: all moral work is honorable, whether it is working in a factory, on a construction site or performing neurosurgery. It’s just that outside of being a professor or a research fellow, you should also schedule some stimulating reading and discussion into your life.
And with that nice segue, here are some of my favorite books that I think you will find enjoyable and provocative too:
1. A Conflict of Visions: The Ideological Origins of Political Conflict by Thomas Sowell. This is an indispensible primer in the philosophical underpinnings of “conservative” or “liberal” political world-views. It is a little abstract, so you will have to concentrate. I strongly encourage note-taking for non-philosophy majors who read this book.
2. Black Rednecks, White Liberals by Thomas Sowell. I could really just list all the books ever written by Thomas Sowell (I think I have read nine as of this writing and each was a masterwork. If you really want to tick me off, just imply he is less than brilliant, courageous and heroic.). This is a series of long essays on race and culture that will challenge (and probably dismantle) most of what you learned in school. (Except for you, Kiefer, and a few others!)
3. American Dream: Three Women, Ten Kids, and a Nation’s Drive to End Welfare by Jason DeParle. Lest anyone say I don’t have left-of-center books on the menu, this is written by none other than the New York Times’ poverty specialist. Well written, gripping, and pretty intellectually honest.
4. Life at the Bottom: The Worldview that Makes the Underclass by Theodore Dalrymple. The class of 2009 already read Dalrymple’s essay “What is Poverty?” contained in this volume along with many others chronicling this British psychiatrist’s observations and insights into the slum culture of London where all his patients reside. Extremely provocative.
5. 1776 by David McCullough. This is by far the most exciting American history book I have ever read.
6. How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill. Cahill is a scholar who I think would consider himself a believer although he definitely doesn’t view Scripture as inerrant or anything like that. However, he is beautiful writer and I am working my way through his very interesting history series. This volume chronicles the colorful Irish monks who preserved the writings of the early Christian fathers and Western Civilization while the barbarians were sacking Rome.
7. The Gifts of the Jews by Thomas Cahill. Another volume, detailing the cultural uniqueness and contributions of the Jewish people.
8. The Well Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer. The 2009 Class saw Bauer in The Birth of Freedom video. She is another hero of mine, a homeschooling mother who is also a professor at William and Mary and a pioneer in updating Classical Education for a new generation. This book is a guide to give yourself the classical education you never got. It might be better for graduates, but I encourage everyone to add it to his library.
9. The Political Teachings of Jesus by Todd Lindberg. I enjoyed this nonpartisan exposition of the political implications of the Gospels. I definitely understood the Sermon on the Mount better after reading it.
10. Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell. The best basic primer on economics in the history of the universe.
11. Eat the Rich by PJ O’Rourke (Warning: Contains curse words. I think the F word even makes an appearance or two.) This is the author’s humorous travel diary as he traversed the world examining the spectacle of various economic systems. It will be offensive to people with a less crass sense of humor than I admittedly possess, but it is entertaining and educational, which makes it worth recommending.
12. What Went Wrong? by Bernard Lewis. What is up with Muslim countries? Why are they so permanently ticked off? World-renown scholar Lewis explains how it all started.
13. The Clash of Civilizations and Remaking of World Order by Samuel Huntington. This was a groundbreaking book by the late Harvard professor (he taught my mommy many years ago!) that predicted in the mid 90s (after the Cold War was over and everyone was super optimistic that we were entering a new era of world peace, for you young uns who don’t remember) that we were in fact headed for an era of increased tribalism and civilizational loyalties as opposed to national ones. It turns out he was right.
14. Supreme Conflict by Jan Crawford Greenberg. Longtime Court journalist tells the inside story of the nomination of each member of the Roberts court (before the coming of the Wise Latina). Riveting and a must read for anyone who wants to understand who these people are and how the process actually works.
15. Party of Death by Ramesh Ponnuru. This book explains the history of legalized abortion in America and makes a case for the incremental approach to protecting life and ending abortion.
16. Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg. Goldberg is one of my favorite columnists and this book traces the history of political liberalism back to its roots in early 20th Century Progressivism. This Progressivism was more heavily influenced by European political thought than most modern liberals care to admit.
17. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck. Anything useful you got out of the session I did on this topic, I probably stole from her. The book is written for a general audience and, as I mentioned, helped me confront some very counter-productive tendencies in my own life.
18. Oops: I didn’t put any “Christian” books on this list. So my favorite Christian authors off the top of my head are John Piper, Larry Crabb, CS Lewis and Francis Schaeffer. All their stuff rocks.
Let me know what you think about God’s purpose for education, your favorite thought-provoking books, the relationship between vocation and intellectual stimulation and so on. Post below or email me at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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