Following David Sehat’s lead from this past October, I’m going to selfishly use some of USIH’s virtual space for self-promotion purposes. The October 2008 issue of The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (Vol. 7, no. 4) holds an article derived from my dissertation. The essay, titled “Dreams of a Democratic Culture: Revising the Origins of the Great Books Idea, 1869-1921,” uses our mutton-chop sideburned friend to the right, Matthew Arnold, as the starting point for an inquiry into the ~positive~ roots of the great books idea in the United States. The “revising” part of my title hinges Read more