A Great Idea at the Time: The Rise, Fall, and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books by Alex Beam - 2009-10-13

PublicAffairs, 2009. Paperback. Very Good. May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed.

PublicAffairs, 2009. Paperback. Good. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed.

PublicAffairs, 2009-10-13. Paperback. Very Good. 0.8000 7.9000 5.1000. Book has some overall wear. Book has some minor dirtiness.\r\n

Publicaffairs. Used - Very Good. 2009. Paperback. Pap. Minor shelf wear. Very Good. (Subject: Literary Criticism).

Publicaffairs. Used - Like New. Very Good. Paperback. 2008. Originally published at $13.95.. May contain remainder mark. Otherwise, like new.

This is the story of great books; not just any great books, mind you, but the 54 volumes launched in Chicago in 1952 as the Great Books of the Western World. In the course of just over 200 brisk pages, Alex Beam explains how, and why, such an entity came into being. Beam locates the origin of the Great Books project in two late-19th-century developments: middle-class anxiety about what the newly literate working classes were reading, and the introduction of specialisation in the university curriculum. At the very moment that Charles Eliot was transforming Harvard from a gentleman's college into a modern university, he launched Harvard Classics, a popular version of the broad education he had argued was obsolete.

PublicAffairs, 2008. Trade paperback. Very Good +.

UsedVeryGood. Minor shelf wear

UsedVeryGood. signs of little wear on the cover.

UsedVeryGood. signs of little wear on the cover.