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.
From “Rename and Remain” to “Reframe and Regain”: Reimagining Campus Inclusiveness
In my last article, I highlighted the crucial strategies of “person-first” and “targeted universalism” amid the wave of anti-DEI legislation in higher education. Initially, many of us embraced a “rename
Molly Kerby
July 7, 2025
