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In Defense of a Liberal Education
- Narrated by: Fareed Zakaria
- Length: 3 hrs and 45 mins
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Publisher's summary
New York Times best-selling author of The Post-American World and host of CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS argues for a renewed commitment to the world's most valuable educational traditions in this fascinating audiobook.
The liberal arts educational system is under attack. Governors in Texas, Florida, and North Carolina have announced that they will not spend taxpayer money subsidizing the liberal arts. Majors like English and history - which were once very popular and highly respected - are in steep decline, and President Obama has recently advised students to keep in mind that technical training could be more valuable than a degree in art history when deciding on an educational path.
In this timely and urgently needed audiobook, Fareed Zakaria explains that this turn away from the liberal arts is a mistake. A liberal education provides the foundation for finding your voice, writing, speaking your mind, and ultimately learning - all immensely valuable skills no matter your profession. Technology and globalization are making these skills even more valuable and necessary as routine mechanical and even computing tasks can be done by machines. More than just a path to a career, Zakaria argues that a liberal education is an exercise in freedom, and above all it feeds the most basic urge of the human spirit - to know.
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Good intentions, terrible execution
- By Kristofer Jarl on 05-06-19
By: Todd Rose
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Higher Education in America
- By: Derek Bok
- Narrated by: Steven Cooper
- Length: 18 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Higher Education in America is a landmark work - a comprehensive and authoritative analysis of the current condition of our colleges and universities from former Harvard president Derek Bok, one of the nation's most-respected education experts. Sweepingly ambitious in scope, this is a deeply informed and balanced assessment of the many strengths as well as the weaknesses of American higher education today.
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Long but not deep
- By ProfGolf on 05-13-16
By: Derek Bok
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The Age of American Unreason
- By: Susan Jacoby
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 14 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Combining historical analysis with contemporary observation, Susan Jacoby dissects a new American cultural phenomenon - one that is at odds with our heritage of Enlightenment reason and with modern, secular knowledge and science. With mordant wit, Jacoby surveys an antirationalist landscape extending from pop culture to a pseudo-intellectual universe of "junk thought".
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Interesting, but explanation by redescription
- By T. Andrew Poehlman on 07-15-08
By: Susan Jacoby
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Average is Over
- Powering America Beyond the Age of the Great Stagnation
- By: Tyler Cowen
- Narrated by: Andrew Garman
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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The widening gap between rich and poor means dealing with one big, uncomfortable truth: If you're not at the top, you're at the bottom. The global labor market is changing radically thanks to growth at the high end and the low. About three quarters of the jobs created in the United States since the great recession pay only a bit more than minimum wage. Still, the United States has more millionaires and billionaires than any country ever, and we continue to mint them.
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Disappointing analysis of future
- By JKBart on 12-10-13
By: Tyler Cowen
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The Case Against Education
- Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money
- By: Bryan Caplan
- Narrated by: Allan Robertson
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
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Despite being immensely popular - and immensely lucrative - education is grossly overrated. In this explosive book, Bryan Caplan argues that the primary function of education is not to enhance students' skill but to certify their intelligence, work ethic, and conformity - in other words, to signal the qualities of a good employee.
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Finally, someone says what needs to be said about education
- By Brandon B. on 05-17-18
By: Bryan Caplan
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Anti-Intellectualism in American Life
- By: Richard Hofstadter
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 16 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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This book throws light on many features of the American character. Its concern is not merely to portray the scorners of intellect in American life, but to say something about what the intellectual is, and can be, as a force in a democratic society.
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Still Current, Without Opening Recent Wounds
- By wbiro on 11-09-17
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Dark Horse
- Achieving Success Through the Pursuit of Fulfillment
- By: Todd Rose, Ogi Ogas
- Narrated by: Roger Wayne
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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In Dark Horse, Rose and Ogas show how the four elements of the dark horse mind-set empower you to consistently make the right choices that fit your unique interests, abilities, and circumstances and will guide you to a life of passion, purpose, and achievement.
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If you're anything like me, you have to read this
- By Bree on 11-08-19
By: Todd Rose, and others
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Fail U.
- The False Promise of Higher Education
- By: Charles J. Sykes
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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With chapters exploring the staggering costs of a college education, the sharp decline in tenured faculty and teaching loads, the explosion of administrator jobs, the grandiose building plans (gyms, food courts, student recreation centers), and the hysteria surrounding the "epidemic" of campus rapes, "triggers", "micro-aggressions", and other forms of alleged trauma, Fail U. concludes by offering a different vision of higher education - one that is affordable, more productive, and better-suited to meet the needs of a diverse range of students.
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Very glad I listened, not enough resolution
- By James Collier on 03-01-17
By: Charles J. Sykes
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The War Against Boys
- How Misguided Policies Are Harming Our Young Men
- By: Christina Hoff Sommers
- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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An updated and revised edition of the controversial classic - now more relevant than ever - argues that boys are the ones languishing socially and academically, resulting in staggering social and economic costs. After two major waves of feminism and decades of policy reform, women have made massive strides in education. Today they outperform men in nearly every measure of social, academic, and vocational well-being. Christina Hoff Sommers contends that it's time to take a hard look at present-day realities and recognize that boys need help.
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Important Book
- By VeritasPlz on 11-05-18
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A Bigger Prize
- How We Can Do Better Than the Competition
- By: Margaret Heffernan
- Narrated by: Margaret Heffernan
- Length: 15 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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From the cranberry bogs of Massachusetts to the classrooms of Singapore and Finland, from tiny start-ups to global engineering firms and beloved American organizations like Ocean Spray, Eileen Fisher, Gore, and Boston Scientific, Heffernan discovers ways of living and working that foster creativity, spark innovation, reinforce our social fabric, and feel so much better than winning.
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Margaret Heffernan is brilliant!
- By Eric Willingham on 06-09-16
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A view from above
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What listeners say about In Defense of a Liberal Education
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- william scharpf
- 11-04-16
A must read for anyone with a college bound teenager.
This is a must read for anyone who has a young person considering college. He provides an Excellent perspective on the value of a liberal college Education. Not in terms of economics, but in terms preparation for the workforce and in life. He makes an argument to think of college as more than a trade school. He makes an excellent argument on training our young people to think instead of just giving them a skill. And and how this will be a better preparation for life. In chapter 6 he provides one of the best defense of the millennial generation I have heard in a long time.
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- A. Cooper
- 06-03-15
Enlightening defense
For the ability to connect the information with results it produces this is very well thought out. It's quick and thought provoking for starts and supportive research for those looking to understand influence of education in our future.
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- Troy
- 04-23-15
Thinking for Yourself Is a Good Thing
Having grown up in Texas, one of the biggest offenders against the idea of the masses thinking for itself as individuals, I can look almost anywhere in my surroundings and directly apply Zakaria's arguments. There is so much practical wisdom here that most will never see or take advantage of that it hurts. Zakaria's thoughts here are well-organized, well-defended, and transparent on every level, and yet, implementing it to its fullest goes beyond the level of the individual. Those in power have very little incentive to change the status quo because that's how they got to power in the first place. Even so, Zakaria makes an excellent case for the practicality and value of liberal arts and the power of a people who can hink for themselves. My personal suggestion would be the one path unthinkable to most: for an individual to continue such studies on their own. There are resources aplenty in the age of information. Play the game, get the degree you think you need, but never stop learning. If someone says a body of knowledge isn't necessary in modern society, there are many good reasons that knowledge should be pursued with enthusiasm.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Timmy the G
- 08-31-16
Very good
He said precisely what I have always thought, though he is much more eloquent than I. I want my children to hear/read this.
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- H. Hackney
- 04-09-15
Almost
I can almost agree with all that Fareed had to say. I myself did not graduate from high school. And I have a great life today at the age of sixty one. I've made a lot of mistakes but I learned from everyone of them. When I started out at the age of 12 I new that the most important thing was too make as much money as you can, and always learn as much as you can from everything that you do.
And I'm still learning every day! This is how life should be. Enjoying every moment of what you make of it. And if you screw up you can always try something else!!
Howard Hackney
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10 people found this helpful
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- Ian
- 12-31-18
Great insight into higher education
great analysis of higher educations function across the world and what can be done to improve or make sure it doesn't go stagnate. Fareeds narrations is excellent as always.
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- Jaime
- 01-14-19
really good book, was easy to follow,
Very interesting book, the author's voice is very good. I listened to it with 2 friends.this was my second time reading it. She found it very enlightning and he enjoyed it because the book kept him interested for the entire literary composition?
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1 person found this helpful
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- Karen
- 03-06-17
Well Worth a Listen
This was a solid treatment of the benefits of a broad education. I work with pre-teaching majors, though I have a liberal arts degree, and this gave me some insight about how to help students understand the differences between these types of degrees.
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- Chris
- 02-17-17
Pleasant homework!
I was assigned this for an college level English class. I have to say, I was very pleasantly surprised by this book. Reading it was too daunting, but listening to it informed me and opened my mind.
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- Joe Freiburger
- 04-27-15
Short, but engaging and persuading
What did you love best about In Defense of a Liberal Education?
I enjoyed this book. It was short, very easy to understand, and noted some academic studies to support his hypothesis. An engaging argument to support those that choose to follow a liberal arts education.
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2 people found this helpful