The Foundation's Daniel Born on Britannica.com Blog

The Great Books Foundation?s Daniel Born, vice president for Post-Secondary Programs and editor of The Common Review, wrote an article on the Encyclopedia Britannica Blog. The posts appeared on December 8 as a part of the new Encyclopedia Brittannica Blog forum, ?How Now, Great Books?? which features guest blogs by other relevant writers, or as Britannica terms them, ?latter-day Great Bookies,? responding to Alex Beam?s book A Great Idea at the Time: The Rise, Fall, and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books.

In ?The Great Books Still Matter,? Born says of Beam?s book, ?If someone wants to carp that too many of the jokes come at Adler?s expense, well?and I?m happy to say this?the Great Books that we currently edit and promote at the Foundation might not always be pleasing to the founders. We?ve perhaps opened the canon a bit much for the masters? tastes. My plea would be this: Can we have a little bit more of the spirit, and a little bit less of the wing-nut letter of the law? One would hope so.? Read the full article.