From Open Democracy, in the effort to contain global warming and create an environmentally viable world, is democracy help or obstacle? From First Things, Joseph Bottum on The Judgment of Memory; an essay on How to Read the Bible; was Shakespeare a closet Catholic, a proud Protestant, or none of the above?; a review of Why Classical Music Still Matters by Lawrence Kramer; and a review of Why the Democrats Are Blue: Secular Liberalism and the Decline of the People’s Party by Mark Stricherz. Is liberal Catholicism dead? There's a liberal argument for the study of the classics, but Yale isn't making it. From The New Criterion, what was a liberal education? Roger Kimball introduces a special issue, including Alan Charles Kors on the sadness of higher education: On comparing the university life then with now; Robert L. Paquette on the world we have lost: A parable on the academy; Victor Davis Hanson on the new learning that failed: On the value of classical learning; James Piereson on liberalism vs. humanism: On the battle between learning for the sake of learning and learning for utility; and Charles Murray on the age of educational romanticism: On requiring every child to be above average. Andrew Sullivan on Obama-Clinton, a hate-filled dream ticket. Emily Barton reviews Morrison H. Heckscher’s Creating Central Park.
