Sophocles’ Antigone

I always look to the ancient Greeks for wisdom.  Since they were the inventors of literature and philosophy, I decided to read the tragedy Antigone.  A tyrant named Creon commands a woman, Antigone to not give her brother the dignity of a burial.  Or she will be executed.  Not only does Antigone not follow Creon’s […]

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“There is no horizontal Stratification of society in this country like the rocks in the earth, that hold one class down below forevermore and let another come to the surface to stay there forever.  Our Stratification is like the ocean where every individual drop is free to move and where from the sternest depths of […]

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An excellent book which spans over two thousand years of Western thought asks the question: Who has influenced Western thought the most, Plato or Aristotle?  The answer writer Arthur Herman gives us in his excellent book The Cave and the Light: Plato Versus Aristotle, and the Struggle for the Soul of Western Civilization is both.  […]

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The title of this post is from a novel written by Welshman Ken Follett, a writer who was unknown to me.  I was on a website that reviewed this masterful piece of historical fiction.  Follett takes us back to 12th century England, a world far removed from our own.  The story centers on a fictional […]

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Imagine a future world where genius children are trained to fight an intergalactic war against an extraterrestrial enemy ready to destroy Earth.  Orson Scott Card’s book Ender’s Game (The Ender Quintet) is a fascinating story about a highly intelligent young boy named Ender who is chosen to train in the military to defeat an evil species.  This is […]

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I came across an interview of Ryan Holiday about his book The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph.  After reading the interview I decided to read the book. I can tell you I was not disappointed. Holiday’s book is not the usual self-help books with their meaningless platitudes that […]

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Not much is known about Aesop.  In one instance I read he was a slave in ancient Greece who wrote these tales as a chronicle of his life.  I also read that Aesop could have been a pen name used by multiple writers.  In any event these stories have lasted over 2000 years and their […]

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We all know the story of King Henry VIII the tyrannical ruler of England.  In his quest for a male heir he divorced and beheaded his wives with impunity.  Finally, in 1537, a son named Edward was born. The circumstances surrounding Edward’s birth would have massive implications for the Catholic Church, England, Western Europe, and our […]

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I just finished reading a disturbing look into the lives of fashion designers John Galliano and Alexander McQueen. Dana Thomas, a fashion correspondent delves into the lives of these incredibly talented designers in her book Gods and Kings: The Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano From my reading, Thomas showed the parallel lives […]

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That’s the question I have been trying to answer through my blog.  I would like to direct your attention to a book whose title I have used for this blog post.  Mark Edmundson, a professor answers this question with his book, Why Read?  As a college professor, Edmundson is on the front lines of the […]

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