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Title: Smart people can be pretty dumb.
Review: I cannot understand why the authors of this book, like so many other "conservatives," feel the need to condemn non-western cultures as a means of celebrating Classical civilization. The authors' disdain for multiculturalism notwithstanding, we DO like in a multicultural world, and that must be part of our educational system. There is no good reason to say that this or that culture was less than adequate just because we prefer (as I do) the Classical world. Also, the authors' position that fifth-century Athens represented some sort of spontaneous generation completely contradicts all the good work of M.L. West and others who have shown the important linkages between Classical Greece and the Near East. I wish someone could present a coherent argument in favor of a traditional approach to education (like Great Books) without coming off sounding like Aristophanes, Allen Bloom, Rush Limbaugh, Jerry Fallwell, and this book's authors.
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