A Dominican-born academic tells the story of how the Great Books transformed his life-and why they have the power to speak to people of all backgrounds

What is the value of a liberal education? Traditionally characterized by a rigorous engagement with the classics of Western thought and literature, this approach to education is all but extinct in American universities, replaced by flexible distribution requirements and ever-narrower academic specialization. Many academics attack the very idea of a Western canon as chauvinistic, while the general public increasingly doubts the value of the humanities. In Rescuing Socrates, Dominican-born American academic Roosevelt Montas tells the story of how a liberal education transformed his life, and offers an intimate account of the relevance of the Great Books today, especially to members of historically marginalized communities.

Montas emigrated from the Dominican Republic to Queens, New York, when he was twelve and encountered the Western classics as an undergraduate in Columbia University's renowned Core Curriculum, one of America's last remaining Great Books programs. The experience changed his life and determined his career-he went on to earn a PhD in English and comparative literature, serve as director of Columbia's Center for the Core Curriculum, and start a Great Books program for low-income high school students who aspire to be the first in their families to attend college.

Weaving together memoir and literary reflection, Rescuing Socrates describes how four authors-Plato, Augustine, Freud, and Gandhi-had a profound impact on Montas's life. In doing so, the book drives home what it's like to experience a liberal education-and why it can still remake lives.

About the Author
Roosevelt Montas is senior lecturer at Columbia University's Center for American Studies and director of its Freedom and Citizenship Program, which introduces low-income high school students to the Western political tradition through the study of foundational texts. From 2008 to 2018, he was director of Columbia's Center for the Core Curriculum. He lives in New York City. Twitter @rooseveltmontas

Reviews
"Rescuing Socrates is a warm, appealing narrative of how it feels to be 'thrust into a conversation' with fellow students about life's most 'serious and unsettling questions.'"---Martha Bayles, Wall Street Journal
"[A] combination memoir and call to arms. . . . Despite those who claim that these are merely works by dead, possibly irrelevant white men, Montas argues that the Great Books approach has a fundamentally democratizing impulse."---John McWhorter, New York Times
"Thanks to Montas . . . Socrates had a good 2021."---George F. Will, Washington Post
"[An] earnest defense of the humanities, which is also a personal testament to the power of a liberal education."---Thomas Chatterton Williams, The Atlantic
"One can only hope that Rescuing Socrates rescues others as well."---Naomi Schaefer Riley, Commentary
"Montas undertakes his defense of the great books with simplicity and humility. . . . In the face of public conversations marked by fear, anger, and hostility, Montas chooses the path of vulnerability. In that, he shows the wisdom of a person who has navigated real conflict, away from the seminar table."---Zena Hitz, Commonweal Magazine
"This is an important, and timely, book about why the western canon still matters and about how great books can change lives, especially impoverished black and brown ones."---Lindsay Johns, Times Literary Supplement
"A heartbreakingly honest immigrant tale of displacement, loss, wrenching readjustment and self-discovery, this book also offers a gripping account of how participation in the great conversation over justice, ethics, citizenship and the nature of the good life can subvert hierarchies of privilege, redeem lost souls, open minds and transform lives."---Steve Mintz, Inside Higher Ed
"Rescuing Socrates is a valuable and thoughtful book both sociologically and educationally, making a contribution to the ongoing debate over the past, present, and future of liberal-arts education in the United States."---M. D. Aeschliman, National Review
"[Montas] weaves a compelling personal narrative together with a forceful argument that reading classic texts, even those originating in predominantly white, Eurocentric cultures, is an important opportunity for underserved students of color to transform themselves and transform the inequitable social structures within which they are embedded"---Brian Rosenberg, Chronicle of Higher Education
"Montas returns the humanities to its revolutionary home, reminding us that we are, after all, talking about such radical and subversive thinkers as Augustine, Plato, Freud, and Gandhi. He teaches us, presumably like he teaches his Core Curriculum students, what those thinkers were after-and what reading them makes possible."---Jonathan Tran, Christian Century
"[An] insightful work. . . . Few colleges and universities still require study of Great Books as part of their curricula, but Monta s makes a compelling case for the life-changing results of such pedagogy; he notes how, as an e migre from the Dominican Republic, he benefited from the breadth and depth of these approaches." * Library Journal *
"That's why the perspective of Roosevelt Montas, author of Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation, is so badly needed. . . . In this part memoir, part call to action, Montas argues that reading great literature and philosophy can make working-class people's lives more meaningful and that everyone should have the opportunity to read great books."---Liza Featherstone, Jacobin
"By taking us through his reading and rereading of books over the course of a life, Montas can articulate what is rarely articulated well about great books education."---Jonathan Marks, Washington Examiner
"The strength of Montas' argument lies in his acknowledgement of the power and responsibility of undergraduate education."---Grace Phan Jones, American Purpose
"A timely and much-needed book. . . . If administrators and education advocates take the message of Rescuing Socrates to heart, then our students, our schools, and our nation might yet see a brighter future."---Matthew Levey, City Journal
"Montas convincingly makes the argument that the classics enrich any life pursuit. By doing so, his story should appeal to anyone who cares about education. There is something here to illuminate and inspire."---Nathaniel Grossman, Fordham Institute
"[An] important book."---Matthew Bianco, Circe Institute
"Rescuing Socrates turns out to be a magnificent exercise in rescuing us."---Douglas V. Henry, Law & Liberty
"Here is the very model of intellectual dialogue: Freud speaking to Montas and Montas considering thoughtfully and speaking back-a demonstration of the fact that the value of liberal arts education is to be found in the experience itself rather than in bean-counter terms such as 'learning outcomes' or starting salaries."---Matthew Stewart, James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal
"Montas' defense of the great books is both disarming and brave."---Benjamin Storey and Jenna Storey, American Purpose
"Montas's inspiring defense of the humanities is as galvanizing as his own story. . . . Even if one is not fond of a liberal arts and humanistic education, he may still want to read Roosevelt Montas for the sheer humanity of his book."---Paul Krause, Merion West
"Eminently quotable and engagingly written, Rescuing Socrates is a rich resource for those who care about liberal education."---Eric Adler, Front Porch Republic
"Rescuing Socrates is the best defence of a liberal education I have read. . . . Montas writes so movingly, and with such erudition, that he himself is the best advertisement for the liberal education he champions."---Daniel James Sharp, Areo Magazine
"A robust and unapologetic argument that liberal education, centered around the great books, should be the foundation of every university education. . . . Rescuing Socrates makes a strong case for liberal education at a time when it needs ardent defenders."---Nathaniel Peters, Law & Liberty
"An impassioned argument for the essential value of the humanities in education."---David Luhrssen, Shepherd Express
"Whereas many today see an irreversible crisis in higher education, Montas sees fertile ground for renewal."---Luis Parrales, Public Discourse
"A beautiful, powerful, personal argument on behalf of great books programs."---William Deresiewicz, Liberties
"Rescuing Socrates is a fascinating and illuminating read that foregrounds the value of the liberal arts, in particular for students from low-income and other disenfranchised backgrounds. Montas exposes the lie that the great works are unsuitable for or irrelevant to people from such backgrounds, and in fact demonstrates the exact opposite: exposure to these texts is most essential for the most disenfranchised."---Finnian Murphy, AC Review of Books



Book Information
ISBN 9780691200392
Author Roosevelt Montas
Format Hardback
Page Count 248
Imprint Princeton University Press
Publisher Princeton University Press