Oh, the Humanities!

Numerous books and articles published in recent years have deplored the condition of American higher education. On the one hand, costs keep outpacing inflation by a wide margin. On the other, questions are increasingly raised about the quality of what students and parents are getting for their money. Outside the STEM fields, in which our colleges and universities continue to excel, newspapers regularly highlight students who, having majored in subjects broadly called the “humanities” at prestigious and costly schools, find themselves unable to obtain gainful employment in their field of interest—and hence to repay the hefty loans they may have taken out to finance their education (at least without the benefit of Joe Biden’s federal bailout). Finally, a large proportion of our institutions of higher learning have succumbed to politicization: Many faculty use their courses as occasions for partisan indoctrination, syllabi are subject to censorship or “trigger warnings” for potentially offending various designated “minorities,” visiting speakers are harassed or disinvited if they express dissenting points of view, and students report being “canceled” by their classmates for violating politically correct taboos.

In Part I of The Death of Learning, John Agresto acknowledges the force of each of the foregoing criticisms. But the greatest value of his book lies in its second part, devoted to the theme of “Redeeming and Reconstructing Liberal Education.” While scolding the snobbery of societal elites toward fellow citizens who don’t pursue a college degree, instead entering the working world directly, Agresto aims to defend the value of a genuinely liberal education, not only for the individual who receives it, but for his country. But to do this requires reconceptualizing the nature and meaning of liberal education.

Agresto is uniquely qualified to undertake this task. Having taught political philosophy at several prominent colleges and universities and authored five books (some dealing with the American constitutional tradition and the role of the Supreme Court), he held a senior position at the National Endowment for the Humanities before serving as president for 11 years at St. John’s College in Santa Fe (one of two campuses of America’s premier “great books”

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