If you've never been exposed to the "Great Books" movement in higher education, you probably don't know who Robert Hutchins was. I only knew him as a dazzling champion of this almost-forgotten ideal of learning, as did his contemporaries. Milton Meyer showed me a man superhuman in his aims and yet tragically flawed. He espoused the Classics without being a true student of them, and yet was he not more Shakespearean than any of the professors he governed? Anyway, the book moved me. If you have any ability to be inspired by the story of an imperfect man, read this book.

The author does a fine job of describing the background and motivations of this important educator. The trials, triumphs and frustrations are all here. The book is a quick read in spite of its length. The Hutchins wit and grace are fully evoked.

This book has been a great influence in the way I view education as a whole. The book has enlightened me to aspire above the current education system. I am now just starting how to really read as I start reading the great books that in the past, have been thought too hard to read by people. If you want to read the classics, then no one should stop you. I encourage almost everybody to as many great books as they can. Reading great books is a dying art, this book renewed my intrest in learning literature and reading.