About the Book

Why would anyone study the liberal arts? It’s no secret that the liberal arts have fallen out of favor and are struggling to prove their relevance. The cost of college pushes students to majors and degrees with more obvious career outcomes.

A new cohort of educators isn’t taking this lying down. They realize they need to reimagine and rearticulate what a liberal arts education is for, and what it might look like in today’s world. In this book, they make an honest reckoning with the history and current state of the liberal arts.

You may have heard – or asked – some of these questions yourself:

  • Aren’t the liberal arts a waste of time? How will reading old books and discussing abstract ideas help us feed the hungry, liberate the oppressed and reverse climate change? Actually, we first need to understand what we mean by truth, the good life, and justice.
  • Aren’t the liberal arts racist? The “great books” are mostly by privileged dead white males. Despite these objections, for centuries the liberal arts have been a resource for those working for a better world. Here’s how we can benefit from ancient voices while expanding the conversation.
  • Aren’t the liberal arts liberal? Aren’t humanities professors mostly progressive ideologues who indoctrinate students? In fact, the liberal arts are an age-old tradition of moral formation, teaching people to think for themselves and learn from other perspectives.
  • Aren’t the liberal arts elitist? Hasn’t humanities education too often excluded poor people and minorities? While that has sometime been the case, these educators map out well-proven ways to include people of all social and educational backgrounds.
  • Aren’t the liberal arts a bad career investment? I really just want to get a well-paying job and not end up as an overeducated barista. The numbers – and the people hiring – tell a different story.

In this book, educators mount a vigorous defense of the humanist tradition, but also chart a path forward, building on their tradition’s strengths and addressing its failures. In each chapter, dispatches from innovators describe concrete ways this is being put into practice, showing that the liberal arts are not only viable today, but vital to our future.

Contributors include Emily Auerbach, Nathan Beacom, Jeffrey Bilbro, Joseph Clair, Margarita Mooney Clayton, Lydia Dugdale, Brad East, Don Eben, Becky L. Eggimann, Rachel Griffis, David Henreckson, Zena Hitz, David Hsu, L. Gregory Jones, Brandon McCoy, Peter Mommsen, Angel Adams Parham, Steve Prince, John Mark Reynolds, Erin Shaw, Anne Snyder, Sean Sword, Noah Toly, Jonathan Tran, and Jessica Hooten Wilson.

Book Trailer

Tablet of Contents

1. What are the Liberating Arts?

  • Practical Matters – The Editors
  • Amid the Ruins – David Henreckson

2. Aren't the Liberal Arts a Waste of Time?

3. Aren’t the Liberal Arts Elitist?

  • The Odyssey Project – Emily Auerbach
  • A History of Liberation – Brandon McCoy
  • The Catherine Project – Zena Hitz

4. Aren’t the Liberal Arts Liberal?

  • Respecting Reality – Anne Snyder
  • Truth U, Justice U, Jesus U – Joseph Clair
  • Elite Education for the Rest of Us – John Mark Reynolds

5. Aren’t the Liberal Arts Racist?

6. Aren’t the Liberal Arts Outdated?

  • Tradition Fuels Innovation – L. Gregory Jones
  • The Liberating Potential of Knowing the Past – Jeffrey Bilbro
  • Science as a Human Tradition – Becky L. Eggimann

7. Aren’t the Liberal Arts Irrelevant?

  • Art Matters – Steve Prince
  • A Richer Sense of Relevance – Noah Toly
  • Stories and Severed Selves – Erin Shaw

8. Aren’t the Liberal Arts Unprofitable?

  • Why Engineers Need the Liberal Arts – David Hsu
  • Forming Better Professionals and Leaders – Rachel B. Griffis
  • Why Liberal Arts Matter in Hiring – Don Eben

9. Aren’t the Liberal Arts a Luxury?

  • Remembering a Mentor – Margarita Mooney Clayton
  • Liberating the Least of These – Brad East
  • Liberation from Lonely Suffering and Death – Lydia S. Dugdale

10. Aren’t the Liberal Arts Just for Smart People?

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