In defense of a liberal education [Book Review]

Abstract

This book, an ‘‘easy read’’, provides an impassioned plea for a liberal arts education to be given its due importance within the educational system. The author is a seasoned journalist who once edited Time magazine and is a well-known face on CNN (he hosts an Emmy-nominated programme). He is writing primarily from a US perspective. Himself the beneficiary of a liberal education (he migrated from India to the USA on a student visa), he is ready, like the Italian political figure Antonio Gramsci, to extol the virtues of an education which gave him so much and helped in his development as a public intellectual. Like Gramsci, he saw in this kind of education important elements for the formation of an enlightened citizenry. In this regard, this book echoes many others, of a more academic nature, which have recently appeared on the scene. This is however not an academic treatise and is not intended primarily for an academic readership. It is targeted, through its manner of articulation, at a wide audience. I am therefore surprised to see it published only in hardback thus far.