Roosevelt Montás’s Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation (2021) is both a defense of the Columbia University general education program and a memoir recounting his interactions with writers such as Plato, Aristotle, Freud, Descartes, and Gandhi. John McWhorter (2021) calls it “a combination memoir and call to arms.” While I appreciate Montás’s commitment to the importance of the humanities and its role within higher education in the United States, I find his argument deeply troubling.
Free Inquiry and Expression: From Principles to Educational Practice
Hundreds of colleges and universities have adopted free expression and institutional speech documents from the University of Chicago. In 1899, the University of Chicago faculty unanimously resolved that complete freedom
Leila Brammer
September 7, 2026
