The humanities are under attack from many sides: fromconservatives who decry "political correctness" in the classrooms; fromliberals, who are impatient with the traditional curriculum; and fromlegislators and students, who are looking for relevance and marketable skills. Disturbed by acrimonious arguments about the value of humanisticeducation, the authors – former colleagues and university-press board members –embarked on an ambitious project to reexamine a number of major literary andphilosophical works dealing with the liberal arts and education. With theirdiscussions ranging from Plato to Rousseau, from Cicero to Vico, from Erasmus toMatthew Arnold, Sousa and Weinsheimer offer not a history of educationphilosophy but an examination of the present. They read these astonishinglydiverse works with one question foremost: Do our predecessors'reflections offer anything better in defense of humanities education thanmodern platitudes about broadening one's horizons?
In choosing a dialogic form – namely, letters – to conducttheir discussion, Sousa and Weinsheimer express the plurality and internaldissent that typify the humanities today. Each retains his very distinct voiceand their views remain personal, engaged, and often passionate. This spiritedand wide-ranging exchange offers no easy solutions, and even calls into questionthe possibility of conducting a disinterested debate on such a contestedsubject.
