This excerpt from my book manuscript, meant for chapter six, was unfortunately cut during the last round of revisions. The piece is from an even longer section (also cut) where I offered a few rays of sunshine in a chapter that is mostly about the decline of the great books idea in the 1970s. That sunshine derived from the staying power of great books in the Chicago area. Although my book contains numerous citations of Chicago and various Chicago-based institutions (the city is mentioned on 39 pages), I had to cut a significant passage about Shimer College. Like St. John’s Read more